Galapagos Delivers Candidate in Janssen Alliance

Galapagos NV has identified a preclinical compound in its alliance with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, triggering an $8.7 million milestone payment to Galapagos. Galapagos developed the preclinical candidate against a novel target discovered using its proprietary platform. Galapagos will now begin safety evaluation to advance the compound to Phase I trials.

“Four years into the alliance, which started at the novel target stage, we are excited to have delivered the first preclinical candidate,” said Onno van de Stolpe, chief executive of Galapagos. “Our alliances with pharma provide financing to survive industry standard attrition and get a certain percentage of programs through to the clinic. In this way, Galapagos continues to build a strong R&D track record by efficiently delivering high quality results, both in its alliance and proprietary therapeutic pipelines.”

Under the alliance that began in October 2007, Janssen Pharmaceutica has option rights to acquire worldwide, commercial licenses to certain Galapagos internal programs. Galapagos is eligible to receive as much as EUR73 million in milestones per program, plus royalties. To date, Galapagos has received EUR31 million from Janssen Pharmaceutica.