Mechelen, Belgium, September 22nd, 2004 - Galapagos Genomics NV, Europe's leading target discovery company, announced today that it has created a new business unit for its viral based discovery and validation service. This unit will operate under the name Galádeno from the Galapagos facility in Leiden. The drug discovery business will be conducted from the Mechelen facility and continue to trade under the name Galapagos. Commenting on this separation of the service unit, Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos, said "Both Galádeno and our drug discovery programs have made great progress this year - with Galádeno now a profitable unit and our drug discovery based on programs built around proprietary targets, this separation will allow each unit to grow in a dedicated way." Dr Andrea Grant, formerly Galapagos' Director of Business Development, has been appointed as Managing Director of Galádeno. "Our adenoviral reagent and functional screening business is recognised as the leading target discovery and validation service by the pharmaceutical industry," said Dr. Grant "As an independent unit, Galádeno will be better able to focus on expanding the business, supporting our customers, and maintaining our industry-leading position."
Galádeno will offer both individual adenoviral based siRNA and full-length gene reagents for drug target discovery and validation. Furthermore, the company will provide access to its human drugable genome collections FLeXSelect(TM) (cDNA) and SilenceSelect(TM) (siRNA), for customers wishing to perform functional screens. In addition, Galádeno will continue to offer its unique human primary cell based functional screening platform to partners who wish to apply genome-wide siRNA and cDNA screening to novel target discovery and drug mechanism of action studies. "This technology platform has delivered novel, validated drug targets in five disease areas within Galapagos own discovery research in the last twelve months," noted Dr. Grant, "and as such, is the most successfully applied functional screening platform in the industry. Under this new organisational structure we ensure improved access for the pharmaceutical and academic communities to our unique adenoviral tools and cellular screening expertise and continued delivery of value across the marketplace."
About Galapagos Genomics NV
Galapagos Genomics is a genomics based drug discovery company with programs in osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's disease and asthma. Proprietary targets and compounds resulting from Galapagos' programs are both developed internally and selectively out-licensed. Galádeno, Galapagos' genomics services unit, provides reagents and functional screens to leading pharmaceutical, biotech and nutraceutical companies for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets. Galapagos currently employs 78 people, including 22 PhD's, and occupies a discovery research facility in Mechelen, Belgium, and an independent reagent and services business unit in Leiden, The Netherlands. Partners include Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Johnson & Johnson, Organon, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Vertex and Wyeth. Galapagos was founded in 1999 by Crucell (Nasdaq, Euronext: CRXL) and Tibotec to exploit Crucell's unique PER.C6(TM) technology for target discovery. The shareholders are Abingworth Management, Apax Partners, Burrill & Company, AlpInvest Partners, Crucell Holland and Tibotec-Virco.
Galapagos Genomics is a genomics based drug discovery company with programs in osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's disease and asthma. Proprietary targets and compounds resulting from Galapagos' programs are both developed internally and selectively out-licensed. Galádeno, Galapagos' genomics services unit, provides reagents and functional screens to leading pharmaceutical, biotech and nutraceutical companies for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets. Galapagos currently employs 78 people, including 22 PhD's, and occupies a discovery research facility in Mechelen, Belgium, and an independent reagent and services business unit in Leiden, The Netherlands. Partners include Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Johnson & Johnson, Organon, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Vertex and Wyeth. Galapagos was founded in 1999 by Crucell (Nasdaq, Euronext: CRXL) and Tibotec to exploit Crucell's unique PER.C6(TM) technology for target discovery. The shareholders are Abingworth Management, Apax Partners, Burrill & Company, AlpInvest Partners, Crucell Holland and Tibotec-Virco.
More information about Galapagos can be found at www.galapagosgenomics.com.
More information about its new service unit, Galádeno, can be found at
Contact:
Dr. Andrea Grant, Managing Director, Galádeno
+32 477 79 05 83