Galapagos awarded €1.8 million grant to accelerate drug discovery

Mechelen, Belgium; 26 July 2006 – Galapagos NV (Euronext & LSE: GLPG), an integrated drug discovery company, announces today that it has been awarded a €1.8 million grant from the Flanders government through the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT). The grant supports the development of biological models for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, both core disease areas for Galapagos’ R&D. As part of this program, Galapagos will collaborate with three leading R&D institutes: the University of Antwerp, the University of Ghent and the Flanders Inter-University Institute for Biotechnology (VIB).

The two-year program will focus on developing new biological models that will speed up the drug discovery process. Galapagos will work with the three institutes to develop in vitro cellular models, in vivo animal models, and ex vivo human models to evaluate the effectiveness of small molecules to treat rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. The technology developed under the project aims to increase the success rate up to clinical Phase II Proof-of-Concept and reduce the time to get candidate drugs into the clinic.

“This €1.8 million grant from the IWT will fund a significant portion of our planned investment in new biological models. Successful development of these models would further reduce dependency on animal testing and lead to breakthrough medicines in a cost-effective and timely manner,” said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos. “When compared to those models traditionally used by the pharmaceutical industry, the state-of-the-art technology developed in this collaboration could provide Galapagos with a cutting edge in drug discovery in bone and joint diseases.”


About Galapagos

Galapagos is a publicly traded, genomics-based drug discovery company (Euronext Brussels, GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam, GLPGA, London AiM: GLPG) that has drug discovery programs based on proprietary, novel targets in bone and joint diseases - osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Galapagos offers a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies through its division BioFocus DPI, encompassing target discovery and drug discovery services through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates. In addition, BioFocus DPI provides adenoviral reagents for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets and compound libraries for drug screening. Galapagos currently employs more than 330 people, including 144 PhDs, and operates facilities in seven countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More information about Galapagos and BioFocus DPI can be found at www.glpg.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words “believes”, “anticipates”, “expects”, “intends”, “plans”, “seeks”, “estimates”, “may”, “will” and “continues” as well as similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which might cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Galapagos, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, financial conditions, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of publication of this document. Galapagos expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this document to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, unless required by law or regulation.

Contact Information

Onno van de Stolpe

CEO

Galapagos NV

Contact via E-mail