Our vision is to transform patient outcomes through life-changing science and innovation for more years of life and quality of life around the world. Our unwavering commitment to working for and with our patients will always remain at the heart of what we do. This commitment is reflected in our pioneering research and development of innovative medicines.
Paul Stoffels
CEO Galapagos
The principle ‘Forward, Sustainably’ guides our strategy to bring ethical, responsible innovation in everything we do. We recognize that operating as a responsible and sustainable business is key to our success to drive value for all our stakeholders.
Our Sustainability strategy, initially defined in 2018, outlines our commitment in the transition towards a sustainable society. As a company, we firmly believe that we have to embrace new ways to move “Forward, Sustainably”.
Sustainability is embedded in our governance and decision-making, guided by a cross-functional Sustainability Steering Committee and overseen by our Executive Committee and Board of Directors. This structure ensures ESG risks, opportunities, and performance are integrated into our strategy, operations, and reporting.
To support our ambitions, we are focused on establishing relevant and measurable targets and key performance indicators to track and demonstrate our progress. In 2025, we plan to take further steps to align our sustainability strategy with our planned, future streamlined organization as described in the Strategy to unlock value section in our Annual Report. Our efforts will focus on identifying key metrics to effectively track and reflect our progress toward achieving our 2028 goals.
We recognize that our actions impact both society and our business performance. A double materiality assessment helps us identify the environmental, social, and governance topics that matter most, both in terms of our impact on the world and how these issues affect our company. It guides our strategy and supports our commitment to responsible innovation.
Read about our Materiality Assessment in more detail below.
To determine our key goals and priorities, we conducted an impact materiality assessment in 2022, which enabled us to identify the topics most relevant to our internal and external stakeholders. The analysis provided insights into our potential impact on society and the world, allowing us to better monitor emerging business challenges and opportunities.
In 2023, to meet the requirement introduced by the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), we completed a first iteration of the double materiality assessment by including, in addition to the impact materiality assessment, a financial materiality assessment. In 2024, we updated our double materiality assessment to reflect the business changes related to the transfer of the Jyseleca® business to Alfasigma as described below.
To inform our double materiality process, we engaged with a diverse group of stakeholders, including patient organizations, patient experts, healthcare professionals, research and development partners, supply chain partners, investors, employees, and members of the Management Committee and our Sustainability Steering Committee.
Our engagement process involved structured interviews, surveys, and questionnaires designed to gather feedback from relevant stakeholder groups and to capture a wide range of perspectives regarding impacts, and risks and opportunities associated with our business. Internal and external stakeholders were invited to review a list of potential material topics via a survey to identify the five topics they considered most and least relevant to us and our core mission. They were also given the opportunity to suggest any additional material topics not included in the initial list.
In addition to the surveys and interviews conducted, we maintain an ongoing dialogue with our stakeholders through our sustainability and function leads. Our Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and Management Committee receive regular comprehensive updates on stakeholder expectations around sustainability topics, including ethical business conduct, social and environmental responsibility, ensuring that stakeholder concerns are considered in decision-making at all levels and reinforcing our commitment to sustainability.
The feedback we receive from our stakeholders through both the double materiality assessment and on an ongoing basis, serves as critical input to our sustainability strategy and all elements of our governance and sustainability program as part of our ongoing due diligence, enabling us to better align with our priority areas, such as patient engagement and employee-related topics.
Our stakeholder engagement process provided the basis for the impact materiality portion of our double materiality assessment. A team of internal experts collected and assessed the inputs and topics identified by stakeholders, scoring these based on severity (scale, scope, and likelihood of occurrence) for both positive and negative impacts, as well as the irremediable nature for negative impacts.
For the financial materiality aspect of the double materiality assessment, we assessed the financial risks and opportunities, including (potential) financial effects incorporated in our financial statements. We considered severity aligned with our financial materiality thresholds, as well as likelihood aligned with our internal risk register. This process was followed for all sustainability topics, including climate-related ones. As mentioned in E1-Climate change, we didn’t perform a detailed climate risk analysis.
In 2024, we updated our double materiality assessment to reflect the business changes related to the transfer of the Jyseleca® business to Alfasigma, which impacted the materiality thresholds with regard to our number of employees and financials. The graphic below presents an overview of all the topics that have been determined to be material for us:
For the Sustainability due diligence, we refer to the related section of our Annual Report.
Our Annual Report is an opportunity for us to inform you – our stakeholders – about the progress we’ve made and where we’re heading next. It includes audited financial statements, a note from Paul to our stakeholders, corporate governance information, strategic highlights, and key milestones from the past year.