Paul Stoffels
CEO Galapagos
We know that acting as a responsible and sustainable business is key to our success as we continue to focus on the needs of patients who trust and depend on us. That’s why we defined a 2028 call for action.
Our commitment to society
It’s about being ethical and innovative in everything we do, from research and development, to workplace, culture, and leadership.
That’s our commitment to society.
Forward, Sustainably!
Our approach
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”.
In 2022, we decided to build on our key pillars and achievements and further evolve our sustainability approach to better respond to current opportunities and expectations.
Sustainability
Our ambition by 2028
Years of life and quality of life
Add more years of life and quality of life for patients
Develop pivotal stage therapies
Develop pivotal stage therapies for patients, with patients and the healthcare community
Access across all continents
Provide patients access to our medicines across all continents
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Be a diverse, equitable and inclusive, and trusted organization
Be climate neutral
We are dedicated to achieving climate neutrality by 2028, as part of our unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability and carbon footprint reduction.
Goals and priorities
Our materiality assessment
Driven by our purpose to transform patient outcomes through life-changing science and innovation, we recognize that our activities have an impact that reaches well beyond our financial performance.
Read about our Materiality Assessment in more detail below.
Current and potential impact on society
To determine our key goals and priorities, we conducted a new Materiality Assessment in 2022, allowing us to identify the topics that are most relevant to our internal and external stakeholders. The analysis also enabled us to capture our current and potential impact on society and the world, and to effectively track areas in view of emerging challenges and opportunities.
Listening to our stakeholders
To enhance the value of the materiality assessment, we updated our methodology we applied for the 2018 materiality assessment and significantly increased the number of stakeholders participating in the assessment. Externally we engaged with representatives from patient organizations, patient experts, healthcare providers, supply chain partners, our collaboration partners, and investors. Internally, next to the members of our Executive Management and our Sustainability Steering Committee, all Galapagos employees were given the opportunity to provide input regarding the materiality of certain topics through a company-wide survey.
Internal and external stakeholders were invited to review a list of 35 potential material topics and to identify five topics they found most relevant, five topics they found less important for Galapagos and our core mission, and if any topic was missing.
Result: 4 pillars
The initial results further confirm the results from previous years with the top three pillars clustered around People, Planet, and Trust & Transparency with one main change: the desire to add a new pillar dedicated to Innovation for Patients.
We therefore adapted our focus areas and the four pillars as presented in the below materiality map.
Double materiality
In 2023, in order to meet the requirement introduced by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), we completed a first iteration of the double materiality assessment by adding, next to the impact materiality assessment, a financial materiality assessment. The results of this iteration confirmed our initial assessment, and stated pillars: Patients, our People, Trust and Transparency, and Planet. In 2024, we aim to update the double materiality assessment to reflect the impact of the transfer of the Jyseleca® business to Alfasigma.
Our pillars
4 material pillars
Patients
Our people
Planet
Trust & transparency
Integrating ESG in decision-making
Our sustainability governance
In 2022, supported by the members of our Executive Committee, we established a Sustainability Steering Committee, comprised of representatives from all departments within our organization. The Sustainability Committee ensures that environmental, social and governance considerations are fully integrated into the decision-making processes, including those related to the business strategy, key investments, and performance.