Galapagos & Genentech Extend Drug Discovery Agreement

Argenta, a service division of Galapagos, has extended drug discovery agreement with Genentech which led the contract value to ?21.5m.

Belgium's drug discovery company Galapagos NV announced Thursday that its service division Argenta has extended its drug discovery agreement with biotechnology company Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.

This is the third such extension since the agreement was announced in December 2005. Total potential value of the contract extension is up to ￡21.5 million.

The agreement covers a number of drug discovery programs that utilize Argenta's expertise in computer-aided drug design (CADD), medicinal chemistry, in vitro biology and screening to discover new chemical entities acting against undisclosed drug targets defined by Genentech.