Galapagos NV’s BioFocus service division has extended its collaboration with Chiesi Farmaceutici, a privately owned Italian pharmaceutical company. The extension with Chiesi is valued at EUR2.8 million.

BioFocus and Chiesi began their collaboration in December 2009 and have now extended the agreement for a second time, until the end of 2012. BioFocus will provide expanded medicinal chemistry resource, biology services, and an option to perform ADME services, for an undisclosed Chiesi therapeutic program.

“BioFocus’ offering complements mid-size pharmaceutical companies like Chiesi by providing specialized technologies, such as high-throughput screening capabilities, and disease-specific expertise,” said Dr. Chris Newton, senior vice president of services for Galapagos. “Our ability to add value to these research-minded organizations has been instrumental in building our substantial number of long-running collaborations.”

“We look forward to entering the third year of our ongoing collaboration with BioFocus. As we continue to progress the project, we plan to further utilize BioFocus’ knowhow in medicinal chemistry and ADME optimization,” said Dr. Paolo Chiesi, R&D director and vice president of Chiesi Farmaceutici.