Galapagos and The ALS Association announce ¤2.4 million target discovery alliance
December 11 2006 - 2:01AM
UK Regulatory
Mechelen, Belgium and Calabasas Hills, CA, USA; 11 December 2006 -
Galapagos NV (Euronext & LSE: GLPG) and The ALS Association, a
non-profit health organization dedicated to finding a cure for
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), announced today a new two-year
target discovery alliance. Galapagos' service division BioFocus DPI
will apply its adenoviral platform to identify drug targets for the
development of new ALS therapies. Under the terms of the agreement,
Galapagos may receive up to �2.4 million ($3 million) from The ALS
Association. In addition, Galapagos has the option to further
develop certain targets identified in the program.
Key to the identification of ALS targets is the cell model
representing the disease process in ALS. In this project, BioFocus
DPI will screen its adenoviral SilenceSelect collection in human
motor neurons. BioFocus DPI will use the PluriCell human pluripotent
stem cell platform and expertise from Stem Cell Innovations for this
screening. PluriCells have the potential to aid in drug discovery,
toxicology, and cell therapy. These human stem cells can be
differentiated into motor neurons which will be used in this program
as the cell system for functional selection of ALS drug targets using
the SilenceSelect collection.
"We are proud to work with The ALS Association in the fight against
ALS," said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. "This alliance
builds on both our CNS expertise and on our strong franchise in
working with non-profit health organizations to identify
disease-modifying drug targets for unmet medical needs."
This funding from The ALS Association's translational program,
Translational Research Advancing Therapy for ALS (TREAT ALS), is the
largest to date focused on drug development. TREAT ALS seeks new
avenues to therapeutics and puts into place a clinical trials process
that will be ready when any new candidates are identified. Several
pilot clinical trials of existing candidates are already underway
with TREAT ALS funding.
"We see this alliance with Galapagos as an important initiative
within The ALS Association's mission to find a cure for and improve
living with ALS," said Dr. Lucie Bruijn, Science Director and Vice
President at The ALS Association. "Galapagos' target discovery
engine gives us new inroads toward developing medicines that may stop
ALS."
About ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou
Gehrig's disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that
affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons
reach from the brain through the spinal cord on to the muscles
throughout the body. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the
brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With
voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later
stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed. The progressive
degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to death of
the patient. Yet, through it all, for the vast majority of people,
their minds remain unaffected. Although a small percentage of ALS
cases is genetically inherited, incidence of ALS is mainly sporadic.
ALS affects more than 30,000 Americans, most of whom are between
40-70 years of age. At this time, the cost of medical care for ALS
patients is exceedingly high.
About The ALS Association
The ALS Association (ALSA) is the only U.S. not-for-profit health
organization dedicated solely to the fight against ALS. ALSA covers
all the bases - research, patient and community services, public
education, and advocacy - in providing help and hope to those facing
the disease. The mission of ALSA is to find a cure for and improve
living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. More information about
ALSA can be found at www.also.org.
About Galapagos
Galapagos is a publicly traded, genomics-based drug discovery company
(Euronext Brussels, GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam, GLPGA; London AiM:
GLPG) that has drug discovery programs based on proprietary, novel
targets in bone and joint diseases - osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and
rheumatoid arthritis. Galapagos offers a full suite of
target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and
biotech companies through its division BioFocus DPI, encompassing
target discovery and drug discovery services through to delivery of
pre-clinical candidates. In addition, BioFocus DPI provides
adenoviral reagents for rapid identification and validation of novel
drug targets, compound libraries for drug screening as well as
chemogenomics and ADME database products to select targets and
compounds. Galapagos currently employs more than 380 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.
CONTACT
Galapagos NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
ir@glpg.com
The ALS Association
Jeff Snyder, vice president, communications
Tel: +1 818 880 9007
jeff@alsa-national.org
This release may contain forward-looking statements, including,
without limitation, statements containing the words "believes,"
"anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "estimates,"
"may," "will," "could," "stands to," and "continues," as well as
similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements may involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which might
cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or
achievements of Galapagos, or industry results, to be materially
different from any historic or future results, financial conditions,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, the reader is
advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the
date of publication of this document. Galapagos expressly disclaims
any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this
document to reflect any change in its expectations with regard
thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which
any such statement is based, unless required by law or regulation.
SilenceSelect� is a registered trademark of Galapagos NV and/or its
affiliates.
PluriCells(TM) is a trademark of Stem Cell Innovations, Inc.
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Copyright � Hugin ASA 2006. All rights reserved.
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