CF program

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare, life-threatening, genetic disease affecting the lungs and the digestive system, impacting approximately 80,000 patients worldwide.

Despite the approval of several drugs, there is need for better therapies to improve pulmonary function for a large majority of the patient population. Though many pediatric patients have normal lung function at the time of diagnosis, physicians generally believe that earlier treatments can have downstream benefits for the patient by slowing the deterioration in lung function.

In October 2018, we and AbbVie announced a restructuring of our CF alliance. AbbVie took over all programs in CF and will continue the development of a combination therapy for CF.

AbbVie obtained exclusive worldwide rights to the current CF drug candidate portfolio developed by the two companies in the course of the collaboration. The portfolio includes all potentiator and corrector candidates for CF, with the exception of GLPG1837 and a specific arrangement for GLPG2737. We retain rights to these two compounds for use outside the field of CF.

AbbVie will be responsible for all future activities and will bear all costs associated with the portfolio in CF going forward.

We are eligible to receive up to $200 million in additional milestone payments from AbbVie pending completion of certain development, regulatory, and commercial achievements in CF by AbbVie, as well as royalties ranging from the single digits to the low teens. AbbVie is eligible for future milestone payments and tiered single digit royalties on future global commercial sales of GLPG2737, if approved, in indications outside CF.