Galapagos to focus on rare diseases in strategic shift

The CEO of Belgium's Galapagos says that the biotech company is planning an important strategic shift, risking its money on solo drug development projects focused on rare diseases. Galapagos has made a name for itself partnering up on new drugs for bone and joint diseases with marquee pharma names like Merck, J&J and GlaxoSmithKline. Now the biotech plans to use that partnering revenue stream to go it alone.

"We have been able to convince the supervisory board that we can finance the development costs from the income that we will receive from the drugs we make for large pharma companies," Chief Executive Onno van de Stolpe told a daily newspaper. And the developer plans to focus on rare diseases and orphan products.

- check out the Reuters story