Mechelen, Belgium; 14 April 2008 – Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today the appointment of Dr. Piet Wigerinck as Senior Vice President of Development. As a member of Galapagos’ Executive Team, Dr. Wigerinck will oversee the development of Galapagos’ drug candidates, including pre-clinical development, chemistry manufacturing & control (CM&C), regulatory aspects, and clinical development.
Dr. Piet Wigerinck joins Galapagos from Tibotec in Belgium (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) where he was VP Drug Discovery, Early Development and CM&C, and a member of the Management Board. He started his professional career as a medicinal chemist at Janssen Research Foundation in 1992. He then joined Tibotec in 1998, where, under his leadership, TMC114 (PrezistaTM) was selected and moved forward into clinical trials. Dr. Wigerinck also played a key role in Tibotec’s expansion into novel diseases such as Hepatitis C and advanced several compounds into Phase I and Phase II clinical trials. He brings over 15 years of research and development experience from both big pharma and biotech to Galapagos. Piet Wigerinck holds a PhD from the K.U. Leuven and is inventor on more than 25 patent applications.
Galapagos transitioning to clinical development
The appointment of Dr. Wigerinck reflects Galapagos’ transition from a pure discovery company to an organization with a maturing pipeline. “We are very pleased that Piet has accepted this challenging role in leading our drug development, a great addition to our highly successful drug discovery efforts led by Graham Dixon,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. “Piet’s strong track record will be an important asset as we move forward with our first-in-class therapeutic programs.”
About Galapagos
Galapagos (Euronext Brussels: GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam: GLPGA; OTC: GLPYY) is a drug discovery company with pre-clinical programs in bone and joint diseases and bone metastasis. Its division BioFocus DPI offers a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies, encompassing target discovery and validation, screening and drug discovery through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates. BioFocus DPI also provides adenoviral reagents for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets, compound libraries for drug screening as well as chemogenomics and ADMET database products to select targets and compounds. Galapagos currently employs 450 people and operates facilities in six countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More information about Galapagos and BioFocus DPI can be found at www.glpg.com and www.biofocusdpi.com.
CONTACT
Galapagos NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
ir@glpg.com
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