ProStrakan and Galapagos receive additional milestone payment
in antibody collaboration
Galashiels, Scotland and Mechelen, Belgium; 27 September 2007 - ProStrakan Group plc and Galapagos NV announced today the achievement of the third milestone under Galapagos' collaboration with Novartis in antibodies for bone-related diseases. Today's milestone triggers a payment of $1.5 million to Galapagos. Galapagos will pay $1,125,000 of this amount to ProStrakan as part of their December 2006 agreement.
The collaboration was initially formed between Novartis and ProSkelia SASU
(formerly a subsidiary of ProStrakan) in September 2006. Under the terms of the
original agreement with Novartis, total milestones could eventually exceed $100
million, with undisclosed royalties payable on commercialization. The first
milestone payment, which was related to intellectual property, was announced on
6 December 2006. The collaboration was then transferred to Galapagos as part of
its acquisition of ProSkelia from ProStrakan on 22 December 2006. Under the
terms of Galapagos' acquisition of ProSkelia, Galapagos and ProStrakan split
milestone and royalty income from agreements existing at the time of the
acquisition 25% for Galapagos and 75% for ProStrakan, while Galapagos retains
all R&D fees.
'We are pleased to announce another milestone achievement in this collaboration
with Novartis,' said Onno van Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. 'This milestone further
testifies to the strong performance of the research teams.'
Dr Wilson Totten, Chief Executive of ProStrakan added, 'In addition to the
commercialisation of existing products we continue to benefit from ongoing
milestone payments associated with our ongoing arrangement with Novartis and
Galapagos. I look forward to further revenues in due course as a result of this
collaboration.'
About ProStrakan
ProStrakan Group plc is a rapidly growing international specialty pharmaceutical
company engaged in the development and commercialisation of prescription
medicines for the treatment of unmet therapeutic needs in major markets.
ProStrakan's head office and development facilities are situated in Galashiels
in Scotland. EU-wide sales and marketing of ProStrakan's portfolio of products
are handled by commercial subsidiaries in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and
other EU countries. More information about ProStrakan can be found at
www.prostrakan.com.
About Galapagos
Galapagos (Euronext Brussels, GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam, GLPGA; London AiM: GLPG)
is a drug discovery company with pre-clinical programs in bone and joint
diseases and cachexia. Its division BioFocus DPI offers a full suite of
target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and biotech
companies, encompassing target discovery and validation, screening and drug
discovery through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates. BioFocus DPI also
provides adenoviral reagents for rapid identification and validation of novel
drug targets, compound libraries for drug screening as well as chemogenomics and
ADMET database products to select targets and compounds. Galapagos currently
employs 460 people and operates facilities in seven countries, with global
headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More information about Galapagos and
BioFocus DPI can be found at www.glpg.com and www.biofocusdpi.com. |
