Gilead Sciences-partnered Belgium biotech Galapagos has a lot of shots on goal, with many being tied up with its multibillion dollar deal with Gilead.
But Galapagos is still working on its future pipeline, seemingly not wanting to be bought up by its partner, and to this end has tied up a deal with fellow European biotech Ryvu Therapeutics.
The details are few and the financials not revealed, but what little we do know is this pact will focus on “novel small molecule drugs in inflammation” and is early stage; it’s based on Ryvu’s platform which seeks to find new meds for “diseases with high unmet medical needs.”
The collaboration is specifically centered on a new drug target identified by Ryvu, which under the deal is putting forward its tech platform and related IP. Ryvu and Galapagos will both provide resources to support the collaboration and make use of their expertise in high-throughput screening, biology, medicinal chemistry and toxicology, they say in a joint statement.
Ryvu is responsible for early drug discovery; for its part, Galapagos will have an exclusive option to license IP developed by Ryvu and to continue to develop this during the collaboration. If all goes to plan, Galapagos will be responsible “for all further development of the program.”
Ryvu gets an upfront payment with biobucks and royalty payment wedded to it, but no numbers were shared here.
“We believe that the collaboration with Ryvu is an excellent fit, as both companies are driven by the search for novel drugs to address unmet medical needs,” says Piet Wigerinck, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Galapagos.
Pawel Przewiezlikowski, Ryvu CEO, added: “We are thrilled to start working with Galapagos, a real role model for the European biotechnology sector. Throughout joint discussions on the collaboration, our teams have developed a strong rapport and built the foundations for a very promising start for the new project on an exciting novel target.”#
This comes a few months after Galapagos struck a deal to expand its fibrosis pipeline, picking up an option to license four Fibrocor programs. That deal itself came 12 months after the biotech landed global rights to an early-stage idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) treatment in development at Fibrocor.