Charley's Fund and the Nash Avery Foundation to support investigation of Galapagos' SARM candidate drug

Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG), Charley's Fund Inc. and the Nash Avery Foundation announced today that they will collaborate to investigate the potential effectiveness of Galapagos' SARM candidate drug, G100192, in treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy. G100192 is an orally-available small molecule therapeutic, which has demonstrated successful Proof of Concept in pre-clinical studies for cachexia (the loss of weight and muscle mass).

Charley's Fund and the Nash Avery Foundation will support the costs of pre-clinical studies to assess the potential effectiveness of G100192 in treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy. While investigating this new indication, Galapagos will continue to develop the SARM therapeutic for cachexia, and plans to initiate a Phase I clinical trial in healthy volunteers in the beginning of 2010.

"Working with Charley's Fund, the Nash Avery Foundation and experts in the field of Duchenne gives us the opportunity to explore a second indication for G100192 and expand the potential therapeutic benefit of this candidate drug," said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos.

"The SARM therapeutic that Galapagos is developing for cachexia could be of potential benefit in treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy," said Benjamin Seckler, M.D., President of Charley's Fund. "If the pre-clinical models show efficacy in treating this disease, G100192 could become one of the first small molecule candidate drugs for Duchenne - complementing the gene therapy and biologic approaches in development."