LEO Pharma, BioFocus DPI screen natural products

MECHELEN, Belgium—Seeing the first fruits of its acquisition of Discovery Partners International, Galapagos NV announced its services division BioFocus DPI has signed a natural product screening collaboration with Danish drug company LEO Pharma. Using its library of bacterial and fungal extracts, BioFocus DPI scientists will perform high-throughput screening, hit verification and lead profiling for LEO's antibacterial research program.

"We are delighted to enter into this collaboration with BioFocus DPI and expect that gaining access to their significant repository of natural product subfractions will strengthen our antibiotic drug discovery program," said Dr. Tore Duvold, LEO VP for drug discovery.

In return for its services, BioFocus DPI will receive up to €400,000 in project fees and up to €3 million in milestone fees. It also stands to earn royalties on the sale of any commercial products stemming from the collaboration.