Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- Galapagos shares surge as much as 18%, the most since December 2015, after the Belgian drugmakersaid one of its drugs halted disease progression in a Phase 2a study on patients suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

• Shares trade at EU73.31 as of 9:21am CET
  • Trading volume is 89% of 3mo. daily avg
• Promising data further validates discovery platform, will change the development and possibly the commercialisation plans for this asset, increasing the value significantly, Citi analysts led by Nick Nieland write in client note
  • Original plans to develop as an add-on may be augmented by phase 3 testing as a single agent
• GLPG1690 -- first autotaxin inhibitor to show effect in IPF patient trial -- was generally well tolerated, forced vital capacity (FVC) in lungs stabilized over the 12-week treatment period, placebo arm showed expected decline

To contact the reporter on this story: Roxana Zega in Zurich at rzega@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net Angela Cullen