Galapagos posts impressive top-line data in lung disease

Belgian clinical-stage biotech company Galapagos (Euronext: GLPG) is currently working on an agent called GLPG1690, an inhibitor of autotaxin for use in patients with a lung disorder named idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

This continues to be an area of unmet need, as only two drugs are currently approved, both kinase inhibitors. By blocking autotaxin, GLPG1690 is hoped to slow the development of extracellular matrix that can contribute to fibrosis in the lung, noted Zach Hartman writing on the on Seeking Alpha blog.

And recently, the company provided the first look of the results from their Phase IIa FLORA trial, which compared its agent to placebo in patients with confirmed idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The mean change in forced vital capacity was significantly improved at 8 weeks, and there was also improvement from baseline in specific airway resistance and volume for patients.