Galapagos Buys Drug Firm, Extends Pact

Belgian drug discovery firm Galapagos will acquire the bone disease specialist ProSkelia from ProStrakan Group for about $16 million plus up to $19 million in future payments. Galapagos CEO Onno van de Stolpe says ProSkelia will join his firm's arthritis drug program to create "a leader in the discovery and development of small-molecule drugs to treat bone and joint disease." Separately, Galapagos' BioFocus DPI service division has extended a drug discovery collaboration with Amgen through 2008. BioFocus will provide biology, computational, and medicinal chemistry services to Amgen's discovery programs for up-front fees of $2.4 million and possible other payments.