BioFocus announced today it has delivered a panel of validated oncology targets in its collaboration with Janssen Research & Development, a division of Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. (Janssen). Per the agreement, Janssen retains full rights to discover, develop and commercialize novel medicines on these targets.

In January 2008, BioFocus entered into a fee-for-service target discovery collaboration with Janssen, under which BioFocus developed assays in cancer cells, and discovered and validated novel targets.  In January 2010, BioFocus received a target acceptance payment from Janssen for identifying and validating drug targets. BioFocus has now confirmed the activity of a panel of targets across several key pathways in oncology, per contractually defined criteria. BioFocus may receive success-based payments should certain downstream criteria be reached by Janssen.

“We continue to see strong demand for our target discovery capabilities and this collaboration is an example of how we deliver novelty to pharmaceutical pipelines,” said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos.

About BioFocus

BioFocus aims to expand its partners’ drug pipelines by accelerating the gene-to-drug candidate discovery process. This is achieved through a comprehensive discovery platform, which includes target discovery in human primary cells, focused as well as diverse compound libraries, in vitro and cell-based screening, structural biology, medicinal chemistry, ADME/PK services, supported by unique chemogenomic and informatics tools, and compound library acquisition, storage and distribution services. As a service division of Galapagos, BioFocus has 245 employees in four countries worldwide.

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.