1999
Galapagos is founded as a joint venture between Crucell and Tibotec.
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
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
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.
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