Galapagos achieved the second milestone under the antibody collaboration with Novartis for bone-related diseases, triggering a payment of $1 million to Galapagos. Galapagos will pay $750,000 of this amount to ProStrakan as part of their December 2006 agreement.

The Novartis/ProSkelia SASU (formerly a subsidiary of ProStrakan) collaboration was formed in September 2006. Under the terms of the original agreement with Novartis, total milestones could exceed $100 million plus royalties. The first milestone, announced in December 2006, was related to intellectual property. The collaboration was then transferred to Galapagos as part of its acquisition of ProSkelia from ProStrakan on December 22, 2006. Under the terms of Galapagos' acquisition of ProSkelia, Galapagos and ProStrakan split milestone and royalty income from existing agreements—25% for Galapagos and 75% for ProStrakan, while Galapagos is responsible for R&D costs.

"We are pleased with the smooth integration of ProSkelia R&D under Galapagos management," said Onno van Stolpe, chief executive officer of Galapagos. "This milestone demonstrates the progress our research team has made since the acquisition in December."

Dr. Wilson Totten, chief executive of ProStrakan added, "The terms and conditions of the sale of ProSkelia enabled us to retain an interest in future up-side from existing agreements. We are now beginning to see the cashflow from those programs come through and we expect this revenue stream to continue to develop and add value over the coming years."

News from our sister sites