Galapagos to acquire drug discovery operations of Discovery Partners Int

Discovery Partners International, a small molecule and natural product-based drug discovery company in San Diego, US, is to transfer all its drug discovery service operations to genomics-based drug discovery company Galapogus, headquartered in Belgium, in return for Euro 5 m ($6.4 m) in cash.

The acquisition includes the assets of all four of DPI's drug discovery services sites in San Diego and South San Francisco, US, Allschwill (Basel), Switzerland and Heidelberg, Germany as well as DPI's Japanese sales office in Tokyo.

Under the terms of the agreement, DPI will sell to Galapagos all of the outstanding capital stock or equity interests of its direct subsidiaries Discovery Partners International AG, ChemRx Advanced Technologies, Xenometrix, and Discovery Partners International, along with certain contracts to be assigned by DPI to Galapagos. The transaction is subject to closing conditions and is expected to close in July 2006.

All four of the current DPI sites will remain fully operational and will be merged into BioFocus, the drug discovery services division of Galapagos. The companies anticipate some downsizing of general and administrative functions in the San Diego facility, related to the integration of the various service organizations.

In recognition of the strength of the DPI brand name in the field of drug discovery services, BioFocus will change its name to BioFocus DPI.

Onno van de Stolpe, ceo of Galapagos said: "We will now have a global reach with operations in seven countries. The combined group will be able to provide services ranging from target identification to delivery of drug candidates. We believe this positions the company well for additional turnkey deals like the alliance announced last week between Galapagos and GSK. With this acquisition, we also obtain additional capacity to accelerate the program within this alliance."