Galapagos, Idenix form collaboration for infectious disease programs

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, Nov. 28 - Galapagos NV said it has entered into a discovery collaboration with Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. on selected hepatitis and HIV infectious disease programs.

Galapagos' service division BioFocus will provide its SoftFocus chemical compound collections to Idenix, expertise in the design and synthesis of biologically directed compound collections and hit-to-lead and lead optimization services.

The arrangement is worth up to $2.5 million over two years and is the first collaboration between the two companies, Galapagos said.

Galapagos will receive technology access fees for SoftFocus collections, a fee component for medicinal chemistry services and success payments upon realization of certain objectives relating to the identification of pre-clinical candidates.

"This agreement with Idenix is highly significant for our company and is further testament to the medicinal chemistry capabilities of our services division BioFocus," said Onno van de Stolpe, Galapagos chief executive officer, in a company news release.

Galapagos is a genomics-based drug discovery company based in Mechelen, Belgium, with a focus on osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. The BioFocus division provides target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Idenix is a Cambridge, Mass.-based pharmaceutical company that develops treatments for infectious diseases.

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