The US biotech giant has agreed to pay Galapagos in excess of $30 million, should all clinical and commercial events currently programmed be achieved.
The collaboration covers computational and medicinal chemistry services and supply of biologically-directed library compounds for Amgen’s ion channel lead discovery programs, which are set to run throughout 2006.
Under the terms of the extended agreement, Galapagos’ service division BioFocus will continue to provide Amgen with drug discovery expertise for multiple ion channel targets, including assay development, high throughput screening, chemistry and molecular informatics.
Galapagos will receive an upfront fee of $2.3 million. Additionally, Galapagos may receive compensation in the form of library and technology access fees, research fees, milestone payments, and bonuses. Additional financial details, target identity, disease areas and commercialization targets were not disclosed.
The initial collaboration, announced in January 2003, involves the identification of lead candidates against multiple ion channel targets. The modulation of ion channels is potentially important in the treatment of a wide range of diseases including cardiovascular and neurological disorders.