ThromboGenics and Galapagos partner on treatment of diabetic eye disease

Ophthalmic specialist biotech firm ThromboGenics (Euronext Brussels: THR) has signed a global and exclusive license agreement with fellow Belgium-based Galapagos (Euronext: GLPG) to develop and commercialize integrin antagonists for the treatment of diabetic eye disease.

The license agreement will give ThromboGenics access to a collection of integrin antagonists developed by Galapagos. Under the terms of the deal, ThromboGenics will pay a 1 million euros ($1.1 million) upfront technology-transfer payment to Galapagos. Galapagos will also be entitled to receive certain development and commercial milestone payments plus royalties based on any future annual net sales of products that originated from its library of integrin antagonists.

Research to-date suggests that integrin antagonists could play an important role in the treatment of back of the eye diseases, including diabetic eye diseases. Initially, ThromboGenics intends to further explore and characterize the integrin antagonists that it has in-licensed from Galapagos using a number of well validated preclinical models of diabetic eye disease. ThromboGenics believes that by gaining access to these molecules, it has the potential to develop a novel small molecule integrin antagonist which could be used to treat a broad range of patients with diabetic retinopathy, with or without diabetic macular edema. ThromboGenics has designated the most advanced of these integrin antagonist drug candidates as THR-687.

Market sector expected to reach $4.2 billion