Galapagos' 2005 income up 44% with BioFocus

Dutch genomics-based drug discovery company Galapagos says that total revenue for full-year 2005 increased 43.6% on the previous year, to 11.2 million euros ($13.3 million), thanks to its acquisition of BioFocus in the fourth quarter, which contributed 9.1 million euros when it merged with Galadeno, Galapgos' former service division, last year (Marketletter October 24, 2005).

Although BioFocus contributed a profit of 1.0 million euros to the group's results for fourth-quarter 2005, on a fully-loaded basis, Galapgos as whole saw a loss of 900,000 euros during that time. Full-year losses rose 80.5% to 6.5 million euros, 0.73 euros per share, reflecting a 1.3 million euro step up in R&D investment to 6.7 million euros. The Dutch drug discovery engine noted that its full-year cash burn (excluding its Initial Public Offering and acquisition costs) was 4.7 million euros, up 74.1%.

Galapagos stressed that the additional investment in R&D allowed it to progress a number of bone and joint targets into drug discovery, noting that its lead compound in rheumatoid arthritis "successfully showed reduced paw swelling in a mouse model."