NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Belgian drug discovery and development firm Galapagos today announced that it has acquired the service operations of Argenta Discovery for €16.5 million ($23 million).
The privately held contract drug discovery business employs 140 and is based in the UK. Its respiratory drug development business, called Pulmagen Therapeutics, will operate as a new privately held firm, in which Galapagos will have no ownership.
The acquisition includes Argenta Discovery's medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, ADME, and biology activities, as well as the respiratory models and pharmacokinetics operations.
Galapagos said that it has paid 1.2 times Argenta's annual revenue. It added that the acquired business will be accretive to its 2010 group revenues.
Following the acquisition, the combined service division operations, which will operate under the BioFocus and Argenta brand names, are expected to achieve around €70 million in 2010 revenues. Galapagos' service operations will employ 390 staff in the UK, Switzerland, and the US following the closing of the deal, Galapagos said.