Bristol University seals drug discovery pact with Galapagos

Collaboration

Galapagos NV has agreed a drug discovery collaboration with Bristol University to develop treatments for chronic pain associated with diabetes.

Galapagos’ UK service division BioFocus will provide hit-to-lead and lead optimisation services for a Wellcome Trust funded programme at Bristol. Total contract value for Galapagos could exceed €3.3 million in research fees over two years.

This work is supported by a Seeding Drug Discovery Award from Wellcome, to a team of researchers led by David Wynick, Professor of Molecular Medicine.

The project aims to develop a new analgesic drug based on the protein galanin, a small protein that has been shown to reduce neuropathic pain in a number of models of diseases, including diabetes. In earlier studies, several compounds from the BioFocus screening collection were shown to amplify the therapeutic effect of galanin in vitro.

In the two-year collaboration BioFocus will provide medicinal chemistry, biology and ADME/PK, with the goal of optimising these molecules.

“Once again we see the BioFocus screening libraries deliver promising hits that are of interest to the academic and pharmaceutical communities,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos.

“Molecules from the BioFocus collection have shown promise in amplifying the therapeutic properties of galanin in models of neuropathic pain,” Wynick said.