Lilly extends R&D accord with Galapagos

Belgian drug discovery firm Galapagos NV says that its service division, BioFocus DPI, has extended its drug discovery agreement with US drug major Eli Lilly until end 2008.

Under the terms of the deal, BioFocus will screen certain Lilly compounds against selected assays in quarterly screening regimes to identify active compounds and provide selectivity information to the US firm for its nuclear hormone receptor research program. Total contract extension value for Galapagos is expected to exceed $1.2 million and builds on the successful collaboration begun in March 2005. BioFocus DPI has been working with Lilly on discovering new compounds that target nuclear hormone receptors, a class of proteins that, when bound to specific sequences of DNA, serve as on-off switches for controlling development and differentiation.