Roche bins Galapagos tie-up
pharmafile | March 12, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | COPD, Galapagos, Roche
Roche has ended its three-year old alliance with Belgian drug discovery specialist Galapagos because of a ‘strategic change’.
The companies signed a COPD deal in December 2009 and broadened it to include fibrosis a year later.
The Swiss firm has now pulled out, leaving Galapagos holding worldwide rights to all fibrosis assays and targets which came to light during the tie-up.
“We regret that Roche ended the alliance due to a strategic change, but the good news is that all assets have returned to Galapagos,” said Galapagos chief executive Onno van de Stolpe.
“Our plan is to find another partner to continue the search for compounds against these debilitating diseases,” he added.
Roche is to pay Galapagos €5.75 million for work completed last year, bringing the total received by Galapagos in the deal to €16 million in upfront and milestone payments.
The company has just posted its results for 2012, turning over €153 million (up 36% year-on-year) and making a net loss of €5.7 million – an improvement on its €30.1 million loss in 2011.
But Galapagos’ pipeline looks promising, including four clinical, six pre-clinical and 30 discovery small-molecule and antibody programmes in indications such as cystic fibrosis, inflammation, antibiotics and metabolic disease.
“In 2012, Galapagos claimed leadership in the JAK1 inflammatory space,” van de Stolpe claimed.
The company has signed a worldwide licence agreement with AbbVie to develop and commercialise JAK inhibitor GLPG0634 in rheumatoid arthritis – and potentially other inflammatory diseases – after Phase IIb.
GlaxoSmithKline has in-licensed another JAK1 inhibitor, GSK2586184, which is in Phase II in lupus and psoriasis.
“The global collaboration agreement with AbbVie on GLPG0634 and the in-licensing of another JAK1 molecule by GSK provide two opportunities towards success with Galapagos-discovered selective molecules in three inflammation indications with high medical need,” concluded van de Stolpe.
By the end of 2013, the company says it will have three Phase II programmes in four indications as well as a number of Phase I studies.
Adam Hill
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