Galapagos NV (GLPG, Financial), the Belgian clinical stage biotechnology company that collaborated with AbbVie Inc. (ABBV, Financial) on a treatment for cystic fibrosis, announced March 22Â the phase 1 study to assess GLPG3067’s safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics began.
With 48 healthy volunteers, the study is divided into three parts. In the first two parts, GLPG3067 will be assessed alone through single and multiple ascending doses administered to the volunteers. In the third part of the study, GLPG3067 will be assessed in combination with the corrector GLPG222.
The results of the study will be presented at a future medical conference.
The Belgian company says it will receive a milestone payment of $7.5 million from AbbVie for this study. The payment is part of a larger agreement the two companies made in September 2013.
GLPG3067 is a new potentiator that is being developed to treat the basic defect in some genetic forms of the disease. The basic defect originates from a particular mutation of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Regulator so that the CFTR protein, which is encoded by the CFTR gene, does not regulate the chlorine movement well, followed by the water movement from the inside toward the outside of the epithelial cells of the mucous glands.
A child born with cystic fibrosis inherited the mutation from both parents and the disease causes a broad range of gastrointestinal and respiratory problems. The latter can cause progressive damage to the lung tissue and is a major cause of morbidity among cystic fibrosis patients.
The carrier frequency of these genes in the Western Hemisphere is one out of 25 people.
Galapagos and AbbVie are closely working together to advance a combination therapy that will employ three complementary components for the treatment of most of patients with cystic fibrosis. The two companies are currently testing healthy volunteers with potentiator GLPG2451 and corrector GLPG2222 and plan to create a triple combination adding the corrector GLPG2737.
Galapagos is currently trading around $82.49 per share, up $2.5 or 3.13% from the previous close. The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion with 46.17 million shares outstanding.
The company closed fiscal 2016 with revenue of 151.6 million euros ($163.7 million), an operating loss of 11.5 million euros, net earnings of 54 million euros and 980.9 million euros in cash on hand.
AbbVie is trading around $65.26 per share, down nine cents or -0.14% from the previous trading day.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stock mentioned in this article.
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