Galapagos delivers osteoarthritis drug in alliance with GSK

Galapagos has also reached milestones on other compounds in the alliance, triggering payments totaling E7.6 million to Galapagos. To date, Galapagos has earned a total of E25.5 million in payments from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) under this alliance.

The preclinical drug candidate is a small molecule that meets all the chemical and biological criteria set by GSK for a potential new drug. The candidate was developed by Galapagos against a novel target discovered with Galapagos’s proprietary platform. The molecule is now ready for scale up chemistry and comprehensive safety evaluation, with the aim to enter the clinical research phase within a 12-month time frame.

GSK and Galapagos have previously initiated a program to discover and develop disease-modifying drugs for GSK’s global R&D organization. Through the agreement, Galapagos broadened its drug discovery portfolio in the field of osteoarthritis, with the aim to develop candidate drugs through to successful proof of concept in clinical research Phase IIa.

GSK has exclusive options to further develop and commercialize these compounds on a worldwide basis. GSK and Galapagos have previously signed an expansion to include two selected GSK targets. In December 2008, the companies further broadened the scope of the alliance through the inclusion of two more drug targets.

Onno Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos, said: In the osteoarthritis alliance with GSK we have moved from target to a preclinical candidate drug in less than 2.5 years for the lead program and have multiple additional compounds in progress. With this broad portfolio of compounds, the alliance is well positioned to deliver disease-modifying drug candidates to GSK.