Galapagos NV announced achievement of multiple milestones under its alliance agreement in rheumatoid arthritis. The milestones trigger a cash payment of 10.2 million to Galapagos.

In October 2007, Galapagos announced an alliance agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV (Janssen) providing Janssen with option rights to acquire worldwide, commercial licenses to novel small molecules from up to 12 of Galapagos' internal programmes involving rheumatoid arthritis therapeutic targets. The milestones announced today are the result of several of these programs reaching the next phase of medicinal chemistry optimization.

"We are pleased that the molecules derived under the rheumatoid arthritis alliance have met the agreed upon criteria," said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. "Galapagos continues to deliver high quality research and remains on course for achieving its goals for the year."

Galapagos is a drug discovery and development company with small molecule programmes in bone and joint diseases, bone metastasis, cachexia, anti-infectives and metabolic diseases.