Galapagos ends inflammation partnership with Janssen
Long-running alliance started in 2007
Galapagos, a biotechnology company with operations in Belgium and the Netherlands, is to terminate its long-running inflammation alliance with Belgian firm Janssen Pharmaceutica.
No reasons was given for the ending of the eight-year alliance and Galapagos said it viewed the molecules emerging from the alliance as strong additions to its growing pipeline.
The company now owns all rights to candidate drug GLPG1690, a selective autotaxin inhibitor.
Galapagos said a First-in-Human Phase I trial for the experimental drug has been successfully completed and it is preparing a Phase II clinical trial in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic and ultimately fatal lung disease, to be filed for approval before the end of this year.
Piet Wigerinck, Chief Scientific Officer of Galapagos, said: 'The alliance with Janssen has been underway since October 2007 and has generated three clinical molecules, two of which are now proprietary Phase II assets of Galapagos: GLPG1205 and GLPG1690.
'This programme is a valuable component of our development portfolio, and regaining the rights is a next step in our transformation into a mature biotech company with a proprietary product pipeline.'
