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Healthcare/BioTech

Galapagos appoints Piet Wigerinck as Senior VP Development
By MARKET WIRE
Apr 14, 2008 - 1:36:01 AM

MECHELEN, BELGIUM -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/14/08 --

Mechelen, Belgium; 14 April 2008 - Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG)announced today the appointment of Dr. Piet Wigerinck as Senior VicePresident of Development. As a member of Galapagos' Executive Team,Dr. Wigerinck will oversee the development of Galapagos' drugcandidates, including pre-clinical development, chemistrymanufacturing & control (CM&C), regulatory aspects, and clinicaldevelopment.

Dr. Piet Wigerinck joins Galapagos from Tibotec in Belgium (asubsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) where he was VP Drug Discovery,Early Development and CM&C, and a member of the Management Board. Hestarted his professional career as a medicinal chemist at JanssenResearch Foundation in 1992. He then joined Tibotec in 1998, where,under his leadership, TMC114 (PrezistaTM) was selected and movedforward into clinical trials. Dr. Wigerinck also played a key rolein Tibotec's expansion into novel diseases such as Hepatitis C andadvanced several compounds into Phase I and Phase II clinicaltrials. He brings over 15 years of research and developmentexperience from both big pharma and biotech to Galapagos. PietWigerinck holds a PhD from the K.U. Leuven and is inventor on morethan 25 patent applications.

Galapagos transitioning to clinical development

The appointment of Dr. Wigerinck reflects Galapagos' transition froma pure discovery company to an organization with a maturingpipeline. "We are very pleased that Piet has accepted thischallenging role in leading our drug development, a great addition toour highly successful drug discovery efforts led by Graham Dixon,"said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. "Piet's strong trackrecord will be an important asset as we move forward with ourfirst-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 boneand joint diseases and bone metastasis. Its division BioFocus DPIoffers a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and servicesto pharmaceutical and biotech companies, encompassing targetdiscovery and validation, screening and drug discovery through todelivery of pre-clinical candidates. BioFocus DPI also providesadenoviral reagents for rapid identification and validation of noveldrug targets, compound libraries for drug screening as well aschemogenomics and ADMET database products to select targets andcompounds. Galapagos currently employs 450 people and operatesfacilities in six countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen,Belgium. More information about Galapagos and BioFocus DPI can befound at www.glpg.com and www.biofocusdpi.com.

CONTACT

Galapagos NVOnno van de Stolpe, CEOTel: +31 6 2909 8028ir@glpg.com

This release may contain forward-looking statements, including,without limitation, statements containing the words "believes,""anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "estimates,""may," "will," "could," "stands to," and "continues," as well assimilar expressions. Such forward-looking statements may involveknown and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which mightcause the actual results, financial condition, performance orachievements of Galapagos, or industry results, to be materiallydifferent from any historic or future results, financial conditions,performance or achievements expressed or implied by suchforward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, the reader isadvised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-lookingstatements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of thedate of publication of this document. Galapagos expressly disclaimsany obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in thisdocument to reflect any change in its expectations with regardthereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on whichany such statement is based, unless required by law or regulation.

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