Galapagos to acquire GSK research centre in Croatia
Galapagos to provide r&d services to GSK under three-year deal
Belgian biotechnology firm Galapagos is to acquire GlaxoSmithKline's research centre in Zagreb, Croatia. The deal, which is expected to be effective today (9 September), provides for ongoing employment of the 130 staff at the centre and additional capacity for Galapagos' growing r&d requirements.
In addition, Galapagos will provide r&d services to GSK under a three-year contract worth €14m. Further terms were not revealed.
Guillaume Jetten, chief financial officer of Galapagos said the acquisition ‘fits very well into our financial strategy to control costs and protect downside risks while managing the tremendous growth of our alliances business’.
He added that Galapagos remains confident of its full-year guidance for revenues of at least €135m with positive operating income and cash flow in 2010.
The Zagreb centre has a strong heritage in antibacterial research, having served as GSK's Macrolide Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery and before that as an r&d site for Pliva, an independent pharmaceutical company and the founder of the blockbuster antibiotic azithromycin.
The integrated capabilities in the operations will allow Galapagos to resource research programmes from molecule to clinic.
The site will form the basis of a newly created third Galapagos business unit, Internal Outsourcing, which will provide additional capacity for the Galapagos Group. GSK's senior researcher from the Zagreb site, Dr Radan Spaventi, will join Galapagos as senior vice president.
‘The acquisition answers our expansion needs and, by bringing a majority of our outsourced programmes back in house, we can achieve significant cost savings in r&d,’ said Onno van de Stolpe, ceo of Galapagos.
GSK announced in February that it would cease r&d activity in Zagreb as part of a site rationalisation initiative.