Galapagos NV announced that it has expanded the alliance in antibacterials and antivirals with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to include three more discovery targets. For this expansion, Galapagos receives a payment from GSK of €2 million cash.
In December 2007, GSK and Galapagos initiated a programme to discover and develop novel anti-infective drug candidates for GSK's Infectious Diseases Centre of Excellence in Drug Discovery (ID CEDD). Galapagos is responsible for the discovery and development of natural product drug candidates through to clinical Proof of Concept, at which point GSK will have exclusive option to license each compound for further development and commercialization on a worldwide basis. Today's agreement further broadens the scope of the alliance between the two companies through the nomination of three additional GSK targets, said a Galapagos press release.
Under the terms of the alliance, Galapagos could be eligible to receive up to €95 million in upfront fees, development and regulatory milestones payments for each product candidate. If a product is commercialized, Galapagos may receive up to €120 million for achievement of specific sales milestones. Galapagos is also eligible to receive up to double-digit royalties on worldwide sales of alliance products.
"Following on the success and expansion of our osteoarthritis alliance, we are pleased that GSK has also expanded the anti-infectives alliance to include three additional targets," said Onno van de Stolpe, chief executive officer of Galapagos. "Together with the current programs advancing toward the clinic, we aim to progress these new anti-infective targets to deliver phase IIa clinical candidates to GSK."
Infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi. The diseases can be spread, directly or indirectly, from one person to another. Infectious diseases are a leading cause of death worldwide. Existing therapies against infectious diseases currently account for an estimated €45 billion in annual global sales. The need for new therapies is on the rise due to increasing resistance of micro-organisms to available therapies.
Galapagos is a drug discovery company with pre-clinical programmes in bone and joint diseases and bone metastasis. Its division BioFocus DPI offers a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies, encompassing target discovery and validation, screening and drug discovery through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates.