MECHELEN, Belgium and LEIDEN, Netherlands, Oct. 7, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Galapagos (Euronext Amsterdam:GLPGA) (Euronext Brussels:GLPG), today announced that it received a Notice of Allowance of a third U.S. patent, related to "High throughput screening of gene function using adenoviral libraries for functional genomics applications." Whereas the first two granted U.S. patents claimed the adenoviral library and the method of producing such library, this third patent protects the method of determining the function of a nucleic acid; moreover, it extends the patent life until 2019. In 2004, the European patent office granted Galapagos a patent with similar claims that remained unchallenged during the opposition period, and in May 2005 Galapagos was granted the corresponding Japanese patent.
This suite of granted patents protects the Company's adenoviral gene knock-down (SilenceSelect(r)) and gene knock-in (FLeXSelect(r)) collections, the core of multiple target discovery deals with pharmaceutical and biotech companies as well as patient organizations.
"We are very pleased with this latest Notice of Allowance, as it strengthens the protection of our technologies in functional genomics services into the next decade. It also underscores our strategy to systematically protect inventions made by our innovative scientific teams," said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. "Our intellectual property position provides us with a unique position in drug target discovery and this translates into income to support our internal drug discovery efforts."
Issued Patent Title Issuance
patents Number Date
------- --------- ------------------------------------ ----------
United U.S. "High throughput screening of gene 22 January
States 6,340,595 function using adenoviral libraries 2002
U.S. for functional genomics 2 July
6,413,776 applications." 2002
Europe EP 1 022 Idem 31 March
335 2004
Japan JP 3 672 494 Idem 28 April
2005
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. Galapagos provides reagents and functional screens to leading pharmaceutical, biotech and nutraceutical companies for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets.
On September 21, 2005, Galapagos made a recommended all share offer for all the shares of BioFocus plc, a drug discovery services company listed on the London Stock Exchange (AiM, BIO). Galapagos is offering 0.225 shares for each BioFocus share. The first closing date of the offer will be October 12, 2005. In any event, the offer must become unconditional as to acceptances on 20 November 2005. If the offer is successfully completed, Galapagos will -- in the combined entity -- offer a full suite of drug discovery services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies under the trade name BioFocus, encompassing target discovery through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates. In addition, the combined entity will provide adenoviral reagents for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets and compound libraries for screening. Galapagos and BioFocus combined currently employ 193 people, including 74 PhDs, and occupy facilities in Saffron Walden, U.K., Mechelen, Belgium, and Leiden, The Netherlands. The partners of the combined entity will include Amgen, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Organon, Serono, Vertex, and Wyeth. More information about Galapagos can be found at www.glpg.com. More information about BioFocus can be found at www.biofocus.com.