Galapagos NV has successfully identified a second pre-clinical candidate compound in its osteoarthritis alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Galapagos also reached a milestone on another compound in the alliance. Together these milestones trigger payments totalling €5.2 million to Galapagos.

This pre-clinical candidate is a small molecule that meets all the chemical and biological criteria set by GSK for a potential new medicine. The candidate was developed by Galapagos against a novel target discovered with Galapagos' proprietary platform. The molecule is now ready for scale up chemistry and comprehensive safety evaluation, with the goal of entering phase-I clinical research in 2010.

"Six months after announcing our first pre-clinical candidate in this alliance, we are pleased to announce the delivery of a second candidate drug," said Onno van de Stolpe, chief executive officer of Galapagos. "This achievement illustrates that Galapagos is successfully progressing multiple programs across each alliance, thereby increasing the likelihood of producing novel, disease-modifying therapeutics."

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