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Servier and Galapagos initiate strategic alliance for innovative treatments in oncology

03 October 2011 at 07:30 CET

Paris, France and Mechelen, Belgium; 3 October 2011 - Servier, a leading French pharmaceutical company, and Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today that they have entered into a multi-year strategic alliance to develop new cancer therapies.  

The alliance builds on a combination of novel Galapagos and Servier targets in oncology.  Galapagos will be responsible for the discovery and development of new candidate drugs against these targets.  Servier will have an exclusive option to license each small molecule program after the completion of pre-clinical development by Galapagos.  Upon exercise of each option, Servier will be responsible for further clinical development, registration and commercialization.  Galapagos retains exclusive rights for clinical development, registration and commercialization in the United States.

Under the terms of the agreement, Galapagos will receive research access payments of €2 million from Servier.  Galapagos is also eligible to receive discovery, development, regulatory and other milestone payments that could reach €260 million, plus royalties upon commercialization of products by Servier.

"Galapagos continues to deliver the innovation that research-based pharma companies are seeking to complement their pipelines.  In this new alliance, Servier and Galapagos combine both their oncology targets and their capabilities in cancer drug discovery," said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos.  "Similar to our osteoarthritis alliance with Servier, Galapagos retains the U.S. rights, which represents a large potential, considering the unmet medical need in cancer." 

"Based on the progress made already in our osteoarthritis collaboration with Galapagos, we are convinced of Galapagos' ability to deliver new cancer drugs based on novel targets.  This alliance complements our very innovative cancer pipeline and is in line with Servier's commitment to develop new treatments for sufferers of uncured diseases," said Emmanuel Canet, Head of R&D at Servier.

"We are pleased to start this collaboration in oncology with Galapagos.  Combination of our capabilities will allow the accelerated development of new drugs against innovative targets, some of them coming directly from our exploratory research," said Stéphane Depil, MD, PhD, in charge of Oncology R&D at Servier.

About Servier
Servier Research Group is a privately-run French research based pharmaceutical company with a 2010 turnover of €3.7 billion.  Current therapeutic domains for Servier medicines are cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological, psychiatric and bone and joint diseases as well as oncology.  Servier is established in 140 countries worldwide with over 20,000 employees.  More info at: www.servier.com

About Galapagos
Galapagos (Euronext: GLPG; OTC: GLPYY) is a mid-size biotechnology company specialized in the discovery and development of small molecule and antibody therapies with novel modes-of-action.  The Company is progressing one of the largest pipelines in biotech, with seven programs in development and over 50 discovery programs.  Through risk/reward-sharing alliances with GlaxoSmithKline, Lilly, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Roche and Servier, Galapagos is eligible to receive up to €2.8 billion in downstream milestones, plus royalties.  The Galapagos Group has about 800 employees and operates facilities in six countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium.  More info at: www.glpg.com

CONTACT

Servier Laboratories                                                       Galapagos NV                                       
Servier Communication Department                                 Onno van de Stolpe, CEO           
Tel: +33 1 55 72 40 82                                                   Tel: +31 6 2909 8028    
laurent.sorcelle@fr.netgrs.com                                           ir@glpg.com                                                     

Elizabeth Goodwin, Director Investor Relations
Tel: +31 6 2291 6240
ir@glpg.com

This release may contain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "could," "stands to," and "continues," as well as similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which might cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Galapagos, or industry results, to be materially different from any historic or future results, financial conditions, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of publication of this document. Galapagos expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this document to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, unless required by law or regulation.

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