MECHELEN, Belgium, Oct. 18, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Galapagos (Euronext Brussels: GLPG) (Euronext Amsterdam: GLPGA) announced today that its services division BioFocus has reached agreement with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Serono to supply biologically directed library compounds from its SoftFocus(R) collection throughout 2005-2006 for Serono's emerging drug discovery programs. Furthermore, medicinal chemistry services already being provided by BioFocus will be expanded further to accelerate Serono's existing programs.The unique combination of BioFocus' and Serono's capabilities have proven to be highly fruitful, and it is envisaged that this increased collaboration will lead to further drug discovery programs between the two companies.
Under the terms of the agreement, Galapagos will receive technology access fees for library compounds, plus a fee-for-service component for medicinal chemistry services.
"This expanded agreement with Serono fits very well within our strategy to provide integrated drug discovery services to pharma and biotech companies," said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos, "We are pleased that our new division BioFocus has been able to secure this important deal for Galapagos."
About Galapagos
Galapagos is a publicly traded, genomics-based drug discovery company (Euronext Brussels, GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam, GLPGA) that has drug discovery programs based on proprietary, novel targets in the bone and joint diseases -- osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Galapagos offers a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies through its division BioFocus, encompassing target discovery and validation, and drug discovery services through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates. In addition, BioFocus provides adenoviral reagents for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets and compound libraries for screening. Galapagos currently employs 193 people, including 74 PhDs, and occupies facilities in Mechelen, Belgium, Saffron Walden, UK and Leiden, The Netherlands. The partners of Galapagos include Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Organon, Serono, Vertex, and Wyeth. More information about Galapagos and BioFocus can be found at www.glpg.com.