Galapagos has achieved multiple milestones under its alliance agreement in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Rportedly, The milestones trigger a cash payment of 10.2m to Galapagos.
Earlier, in October 2007, Galapagos has entered into an alliance agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica (Janssen) providing Janssen with option rights to acquire worldwide, commercial licenses to novel small molecules from up to 12 of Galapagos’ internal programs involving rheumatoid arthritis therapeutic targets.
Under the 2007 alliance agreement, Galapagos was responsible for the discovery of small molecule product candidates for those novel, validated RA targets that are chosen by Janssen. Galapagos was also responsible to develop product candidates through to Phase IIa proof of concept (POC) clinical trials.
During the term of the collaboration, Galapagos was eligible to receive success-based progress milestones from Janssen. For each alliance program licensed by Janssen, contingent on discovery, development and regulatory accomplishments, Galapagos was expected to option exercise fees and milestone payments up to E73m, plus royalties on net sales of each approved new RA drug.
The company said that the curent milestones are the result of several of these programs reaching the next phase of medicinal chemistry optimisation.
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos, said: “We are pleased that the molecules derived under the rheumatoid arthritis alliance have met the agreed upon criteria.”