Our story

What started in 1999 with a handful of employees and a dream to pioneer for patients, crystalized into a biotechnology company united around a single purpose: to transform patient outcomes through life-changing science and innovation for more years of life and quality of life.

Timeline

1999

Galapagos is founded as a joint venture between Crucell and Tibotec.

2005

Galapagos lists on Euronext Brussels and Amsterdam (ticker symbol: GLPG).

2006

Galapagos acquires ProSkelia in Paris (Romainville), France, obtaining R&D operations there.

2010

Galapagos acquires the Zagreb research operations from GSK. This site became Fidelta, a drug discovery fee-for-service business within the Galapagos group. Fidelta was acquired by Selvita in 2021.

2014

Galapagos sells fee-for-service businesses BioFocus and Argenta to Charles River Laboratories International, Inc., giving Galapagos a sole focus on the development and execution of a broad and deep R&D pipeline based on novel mechanisms-of-action.

2015

Galapagos lists on the NASDAQ (ticker symbol: GLPG).

2019

Gilead headquarter buildings with a sign featuring Gilead's logo

Galapagos enters into a transformative 10-year global research and development collaboration with Gilead.

2020

Jyseleca® is granted marketing authorization for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the European Union, Great Britain and Japan, marking Galapagos’ transition into a commercial-stage biotech.

2021

November

The European Commission and Great Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approve Jyseleca® for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC), followed by an approval by the Japanese authorities in 2022.

December

Galapagos takes full ownership of the manufacturing and commercialization of Jyseleca® in Europe and became Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) in 27 European countries, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. In Central and Eastern Europe, Portugal, Greece and the Baltic countries, Galapagos’ partner Sobi is responsible for the distribution and commercialization.

2022

January

Galapagos appoints Paul Stoffels as Chief Executive Officer. Paul takes over from Onno van de Stolpe, founder and CEO of Galapagos.

June

Galapagos announced the acquisition of CellPoint and AboundBio, propelling Galapagos into next-generation cell therapy while significantly broadening its portfolio and capabilities. With CellPoint and AboundBio, Galapagos gained access to a scalable, decentralized and automated point-of-care cell therapy supply model, a clinical pipeline in advanced blood cancers as well as a human antibody-based therapeutics platform. The acquisition of both companies represented a first key step in the company’s strategic transformation to accelerate and diversify Galapagos’ pipeline, expanding into oncology, CAR-T and biologics.

2023

March

Galapagos entered into a strategic collaboration with NovAliX, a drug discovery-focused Contract Research Organization, under which Galapagos’ research and discovery capabilities and exclusively related employees located in Romainville, France, were transferred to NovAliX.

June

Galapagos announced the appointment of Thad Huston as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO).

November

Galapagos signed an agreement with Boston-based Landmark Bio and started the technology transfer for the decentralized production of its CAR-T cell therapy candidates, a key milestone to expand our CAR-T programs beyond Europe and start clinical development in the U.S.

2024

January

Galapagos establishes strategic collaboration with BridGene Biosciences to expand small molecule drug discovery in oncology. BridGene is a biotechnology company that uses proprietary chemoproteomics technology to discover novel small molecule drug candidates.

January

Galapagos enters into strategic collaboration agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to further expand its decentralized CAR-T manufacturing network in the U.S.

January

Galapagos completes the transaction to transfer Jyseleca® business to Alfasigma. It marks a significant milestone in Galapagos’ transformation into an innovative biotechnology company with a best-in-class research and development pipeline aimed at addressing high unmet patient needs in immunology and oncology.

May

Galapagos and Blood Centers of America (BCA) announce their strategic collaboration to accelerate Galapagos’ decentralized CAR-T manufacturing network in the U.S. Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, BCA will provide access to its extensive network of over 50 community blood centers in 43 states for Good Manufacturing Practice compliant manufacturing for Galapagos’ CAR-T hemato-oncology clinical program. The agreement complements existing collaborations between Galapagos and Landmark Bio and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

May

Galapagos and Adaptimmune announce that they have entered into a clinical collaboration agreement with an option to exclusively license Adaptimmune’s next-generation TCR T-cell therapy (uza-cel) targeting MAGE-A4 for head & neck cancer and potential future solid tumor indications, using Galapagos’ decentralized cell manufacturing platform.

August

Galapagos announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Galapagos’ Investigational New Drug (IND) application for ATALANTA-1, a Phase 1/2 multicenter study evaluating the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of GLPG5101 in patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (R/R NHL).

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Discover how we are brightening the future of immunology and oncology, exploring new frontiers in science

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