Galapagos spotlights an 'exciting' round of PoC data for IPF drug, shares surge
Galapagos $GLPG says it got the proof-of-concept data researchers were looking for from their mid-stage trial of GLPG1690 for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and will now push forward as planned into a pivotal program.
Fast on the heels of a riotous reception for FibroGen’s PoC round for a rival IPF drug, the Belgian biotech says their drug clearly stabilized a small group of patients with the disease while patients in the placebo arm continued to decline.
Piet Wigerinck, Galapagos. Credit: F. KalkmanThe forced vital capacity (FVC) of lungs on the drug edged up 8 mL in 23 IPF patients while the placebo group saw a mean decline from baseline of 87 mL.
The biotech also spotlighted “a clear reduction of serum LPA18:2, a biomarker for autotaxin inhibition.”
Investors went nuts over the FibroGen results earlier. Galapagos didn’t see the same eye-opening response, but its stock soared as well, spiking more than 20% after bouncing around considerably after the market closed.
Imperial Professor Toby Maher cheered the results:
Galapagos’ results with GLPG1690 are extremely exciting and exceed those of previous studies. This brings hope to patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that new effective treatment may be on the horizon. Importantly, some patients even showed an increase of lung function within only 12 weeks of treatment, and the drug was well tolerated. The results from FLORA beg the question how patients will fare with longer treatment. I urge Galapagos and the IPF community to progress to the next phase of clinical trials as rapidly as possible.
