From Empirerelations.com

Healthcare/BioTech

Bausch & Lomb and Galapagos sign agreement to collaborate on ophthalmic disease research
By MARKET WIRE
Apr 10, 2008 - 1:36:01 AM

MECHELEN, BELGIUM -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/10/08 --

Rochester, New York, USA and Mechelen, Belgium; 10 April 2008 -Bausch & Lomb, the eye health company, and Galapagos NV (Euronext:GLPG), a drug discovery company, announced today that they haveentered into a collaborative research agreement. Bausch & Lomb willhave the exclusive option to license select Galapagos compounds asdevelopment candidates for therapeutic uses in ophthalmic diseases.

"The agreement provides access to a group of compounds that may haveexcellent development candidate potential," said Praveen Tyle, Ph.D.,Chief Scientific Officer, Bausch & Lomb. "The small moleculecompounds under evaluation have very attractive in vitro and in vivoprofiles. Our intent is to develop these compounds as uniquetherapies, tapping our research expertise in ophthalmic diseases."

"We are pleased to partner with Bausch & Lomb, a leader in thedevelopment of treatments for eye diseases. Our collaboration withBausch & Lomb gives us the opportunity to leverage select compoundsin a therapeutic area that we would not otherwise pursue," said Onnovan de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos.

Bausch & Lomb is responsible for the preclinical and clinicaldevelopment of the select compounds for use in ophthalmic diseases. Under the terms of the collaboration, Galapagos will receive anupfront payment of US$400,000 and may receive research funding tosupport Bausch & Lomb's further development of the compounds forophthalmic uses, plus future milestone payments. Pending successfuldevelopment and commercialization under the license, potential totalvalue of the payments exceeds US$50 million, plus royalties on thecommercial sale of licensed products.

ContactMike McDougall, APRDirector, Corporate Communications, Bausch & LombTel: +1 585 338 5469mmcdougall@bausch.comOnno van de StolpeCEO, Galapagos NVTel: +31 6 2909 8028ir@glpg.com

About Bausch & Lomb

Bausch & Lomb is the eye health company dedicated to perfectingvision and enhancing life for consumers around the world. Its corebusinesses include soft and rigid gas permeable contact lenses andlens care products, and ophthalmic surgical and pharmaceuticalproducts. The Bausch & Lomb name is one of the best known and mostrespected healthcare brands in the world. Founded in 1853, theCompany is headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., and employsapproximately 13,000 people worldwide. Its products are available inmore than 100 countries. More information about the Company can befound at www.bausch.com.

About Galapagos

Galapagos (Euronext Brussels: GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam: GLPGA; OTC:GLPYY) is a drug discovery company with pre-clinical programs in boneand joint diseases and bone metastasis. Its BioFocus DPI divisionoffers a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and servicesto pharmaceutical and biotech companies, encompassing targetdiscovery and validation, screening and drug discovery through todelivery of pre-clinical candidates. BioFocus DPI also providesadenoviral reagents for rapid identification and validation of noveldrug targets, compound libraries for drug screening as well aschemogenomics and ADMET database products to select targets andcompounds. Galapagos currently employs 450 people and operatesfacilities in six countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen,Belgium. More information about Galapagos and BioFocus DPI can befound at www.glpg.com and www.biofocusdpi.com.

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 assimilar expressions. Such forward-looking statements may involveknown and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which mightcause the actual results, financial condition, performance orachievements of Galapagos, or industry results, to be materiallydifferent from any historic or future results, financial conditions,performance or achievements expressed or implied by suchforward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, the reader isadvised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-lookingstatements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of thedate of publication of this document. Galapagos expressly disclaimsany obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in thisdocument to reflect any change in its expectations with regardthereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on whichany such statement is based, unless required by law or regulation.

Copyright © Hugin AS 2008. All rights reserved.