Galapagos and The ALS Association announce EUR2.4 million target discovery alliance

12-Dec-2006

Galapagos NV and The ALS Association, a non-profit health organization dedicated to finding a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), announced a new two-year target discovery alliance. Galapagos' service division BioFocus DPI will apply its adenoviral platform to identify drug targets for the development of new ALS therapies. Under the terms of the agreement, Galapagos may receive up to EUR2.4 million ($3 million) from The ALS Association. In addition, Galapagos has the option to further develop certain targets identified in the program.

Key to the identification of ALS targets is the cell model representing the disease process in ALS. In this project, BioFocus DPI will screen its adenoviral SilenceSelect collection in human motor neurons. BioFocus DPI will use the PluriCell human pluripotent stem cell platform and expertise from Stem Cell Innovations for this screening. PluriCells have the potential to aid in drug discovery, toxicology, and cell therapy. These human stem cells can be differentiated into motor neurons which will be used in this program as the cell system for functional selection of ALS drug targets using the SilenceSelect collection.

According to Galapagos, the funding from The ALS Association's translational program, Translational Research Advancing Therapy for ALS (TREAT ALS), is the largest to date focused on drug development. TREAT ALS seeks new avenues to therapeutics and puts into place a clinical trials process that will be ready when any new candidates are identified. Several pilot clinical trials of existing candidates are already underway with TREAT ALS funding.

https://www.analytica-world.com/en/news/60072/galapagos-and-the-als-association-announce-eur2-4-million-target-discovery-alliance.html