The total contract value for Galapagos for the initial phase of the collaboration could exceed €33.5m over a 5 year period pending the achievement of certain milestones.
As per the agreement, Argenta is expected to provide medicinal chemistry and biology for a number of Janssen oncology targets.
Under the current agreement, Argenta is expected to perform hit-to-lead and lead optimisation for a number of Janssen oncology targets, and also activities up to pre-clinical candidate selection.
However, Janssen retains the option to extend the services beyond the initial set of targets, up to a total of 15 targets.
Galapagos CEO Onno van de Stolpe said that they are seeing an increased demand for longer term, integrated deals in their services business, which access a variety of their drug discovery capabilities and with Argenta’s track record of delivering on integrated drug discovery programs.