MECHELEN, Belgium and MOSCOW, May 12, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Galapagos NV, a genomics-based drug discovery company and ASINEX Ltd, a worldwide leader in lead generation and optimization announce that they have initiated an integrated drug discovery collaboration in bone and joint diseases. The collaboration will result in a set of optimized leads for Galapagos' validated bone and joint disease drug targets. Financial details have not been disclosed.In the first phase of the collaboration, Galapagos' biologists will work closely with ASINEX's medicinal chemists, using ASINEX's computational chemistry expertise and proprietary chemical compound libraries to generate new leads for Galapagos' proprietary targets. The second phase will consist of the design and optimization of the lead structures. ASINEX's aim is to provide Galapagos with a patentable candidate drug series.
"Galapagos has identified a set of proteins that play a pivotal role in bone formation through its functional screening platform." said Graham Dixon, Galapagos' Chief Scientific Officer "ASINEX's expertise in computational and medicinal chemistry complements Galapagos' strong disease biology expertise and it will extend our small molecule drug candidate portfolio in our core disease areas. Therefore, this collaboration will ensure maximum chances of success for Galapagos' drug discovery programs."
Dmitry Genis, ASINEX's CEO stated, "We are delighted that Galapagos have chosen ASINEX in order to initiate their drug discovery programs. We believe that ASINEX's integrated drug discovery services are very hard to surpass. We are fully committed to providing Galapagos with a high value set of lead compounds and to develop a successful and long-term relationship."
About ASINEX
ASINEX is a provider of 'Intelligent Chemistry' for lead generation and optimization. ASINEX is an innovative creator of novel high quality compound libraries for screening, and has more than 400,000 drug-like small molecules. With a total of 151 chemists (54 PhD), 9 computational chemists (7 PhD) and 38 biologists / biochemists (24 PhD), ASINEX is establishing itself as a company of choice for integrated drug discovery services. For more information: www.asinex.com
About Galapagos
Galapagos is a publicly traded, genomics-based drug discovery company (Euronext Brussels, GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam, GLPGA) that has successfully discovered and validated novel targets in the bone and joint diseases - osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as in asthma and Alzheimer's disease. Proprietary targets and compounds resulting from these programs are used for Galapagos' internal drug discovery programs, combined with selected out-licensing and partnering of projects during development. Galadeno, Galapagos' services unit, provides reagents and functional screens to leading pharmaceutical, biotech and nutraceutical companies for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets. Galapagos currently employs 68 people, including 16 PhDs, and occupies facilities in Mechelen, Belgium, and Leiden, The Netherlands. Partners include Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Vertex and Wyeth. For more information: www.glpg.com