Servier and Galapagos form osteoarthritis alliance
Milestones for Galapagos could reach €290m
French pharmaceutical company Servier and Galapagos of Belgium have entered into a multi-year strategic alliance to develop new osteoarthritis (OA) drugs.
The agreement builds on novel OA drug targets discovered by Galapagos, which will be responsible for the discovery and development of new small molecule candidate drugs against these targets. Some of the OA research programmes are in the advanced stages of drug discovery and Servier will have an exclusive option to license each small molecule programme after the completion of Phase I clinical trials by Galapagos. For any marketed products, Galapagos retains exclusive US commercialisation rights.
Servier will pay Galapagos research access payments of €7m. Galapagos is also eligible to receive milestone payments of up to €290m, plus royalties.
‘Retaining the US rights to any products from this alliance is important to Galapagos, especially as the US has a large need for disease-modifying osteoarthritis therapies,’ said Onno van de Stolpe, ceo of Galapagos.
‘This alliance is in line with Servier's commitment to develop disease-modifying drugs for sufferers of uncured diseases, such as OA,’ added Emmanuel Canet, head of r&d at Servier.
