Almirall and BioFocus agree respiratory disease alliance

Almirall has announced a new collaboration with BioFocus involving joint research into new treatments for respiratory disease.

A three-year agreement has been reached that will see BioFocus, an affiliate of the Galapagos healthcare group, apply its integrated drug discovery capabilities to deliver development candidates aimed at a key target specified by Almirall.

Potentially worth up to 7.5 million euros (6.27 million pounds), the deal will also utilise Almirall's expertise specific to the respiratory sector, which has been identified as a key area of focus by the company.

Dr Bertil Lindmark, chief scientific officer and executive director for research and development at Almirall, said: "We selected BioFocus for this alliance because of the excellent technology and scientific fit between both companies."

This comes on top of a previous arrangement between the two companies that was announced in November 2011, which will use BioFocus' screening technologies and compound collections in the development of respiratory and inflammatory disease treatments.