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BioFocus lands major collaboration

Written by Lautaro Vargas

Wednesday, 12 December 2007

BioFocus DPI has landed a  multi-million pound collaboration with pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), to discover and develop novel anti-infective medicines that will target hospital superbugs and life-threatening viral diseases. Worth up to €215 million (£155m), this breakthrough deal represents an important departure for the Chesterford Research Park-based drug discovery services division of Galapagos NV as it is the company’s first alliance outside bone and joint diseases. Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Galapagos will grant GSK options to license product candidates that are directed against up to six anti-infective discovery targets. Galapagos will receive up to €3.5m (£2.5m) in technology access fees. It could then be eligible to receive up to €95m (£68m) in upfront fees, development and regulatory milestones payments for each product candidate and if a product is commercialised, up to €120m (£86m) for achievement of specific sales milestones. GSK will participate in the alliance through its Infectious Diseases Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery (ID CEDD), which has a small operation in Stevenage though the facility is not expected to be involved in this particular project. “We recognise the significant unmet medical needs in hospital or community-acquired bacterial infections plus life-threatening viral diseases,” said Zhi Hong, senior vice president and head of GSK’s ID CEDD. “It is therefore prudent to explore novel chemical space and targets that offer new prospects for treatments across a range of infectious diseases.” Galapagos will be responsible for the discovery and development of natural product small molecule drug candidates through to clinical Proof of Concept, at which point GSK will have exclusive option to license each compound for further development and commercialisation on a worldwide basis. The alliance will utilise the natural product compound collection and chemistry capabilities of BioFocus DPI, Galapagos’ services division. Galapagos will have the right to further develop and commercialise compounds for which GSK does not exercise its option. “This is our first alliance outside bone and joint diseases,” said Galapagos’ CEO, Onno van de Stolpe. “It shows that Galapagos can generate significant business in new therapeutic areas. “The alliance will rely heavily on BioFocus DPI’s natural product discovery capabilities and fits within our strategy of executing risk/reward sharing deals with big pharma and at the same time underscores our M&A approach and successful integration of DPI into the BioFocus service division.” Infectious diseases are a leading cause of death worldwide and existing therapies against them currently account for an estimated €32bn in annual global sales according to GSK. Natural products meanwhile represent a major source of new medicines, as nearly half of all new drugs brought to market in the last 20 years are derived from compounds of natural origin. ID CEDD is a global research unit within GSK Drug Discovery dedicated to discovering therapies for infectious diseases including bacterial, viral and diseases of the developing world such as TB and Malaria. “Our newly created ID CEDD has been focusing on discovering novel antibiotics and antivirals, and the natural product collections from BioFocus DPI have the potential to address our needs,” added  Zhi Hong. “Galapagos has been a productive collaborator for GSK in the existing osteoarthritis alliance, and we are confident this new alliance based on natural products will contribute to the advancement of our drug discovery and development programmes in infectious diseases.”

 

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