Galapagos NV announced that its BioFocus service division has expanded a collaboration with Chiesi Farmaceutici, a privately held Italian pharmaceutical company. Total value for the collaboration with Chiesi has now reached €2.5 million.

BioFocus and Chiesi began their collaboration in December 2009 and recently extended it for one year. Under the terms of the extended collaboration agreement, BioFocus will provide medicinal chemistry and biology services, with an additional option for ADME services, for an undisclosed Chiesi therapeutic program.

“BioFocus has a high return business rate with clients, and we are pleased that Chiesi has chosen to extend this successful collaboration,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. “The quality of the science at BioFocus enables it to sustain its position as a premier provider in drug discovery services.”

“The medicinal chemistry and biology work performed by BioFocus so far helped us to accelerate progress on our therapeutic programs. We look forward to working with BioFocus to move these programs forward toward the clinic,” said Dr Paolo Chiesi, R&D director and vice-president of Chiesi Farmaceutici.

With over 3,500 employees around the world, the Chiesi Group produces and distributes successful drugs in 65 countries, and is present on five continents with 24 direct affiliates, four research centres, and three production sites.

BioFocus aims to expand its partners’ drug pipelines by accelerating the gene-to-drug candidate discovery process.