Distribution of company announcements to the professional platforms, finance portals and syndication of important corporate news to a wide variety of news aggregators and financial news systems.
Galapagos NV (PINKSHEETS:GLPYY) Mechelen, Belgium; 3 June 2008 - Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today that its Annual General Shareholders' meeting approved Dr. William Garth Rapeport's appointment to the Board of Directors of Galapagos.
Dr. William Garth Rapeport is CEO of RespiVert Ltd and Honorary Principal Research Fellow at the National Heart & Lung Institute (NHLI), Imperial College School of Medicine in London. Dr. Rapeport graduated in medicine and subsequently undertook postgraduate training and research at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford respectively. In 1988 he joined Pfizer Central Research in Sandwich, UK, where he was involved in the early discovery and development of a wide range of new compounds. Dr. Rapeport moved to GlaxoWellcome in 1996 as Worldwide Director of Clinical Pharmacology. Following the GlaxoSmithKline merger, Dr. Rapeport was appointed Senior Vice President for the Centre of Excellence in Respiratory and Inflammatory Diseases. During this time approximately 25 candidate molecules were selected for development and several of these have entered mid and late-phase clinical development. In November 2006, Dr. Rapeport co-founded Respivert Ltd with Professor Peter Barnes from the NHLI, Imperial College. Respivert is based in London, and is a small molecule drug discovery company focused on the identification of new treatments for lung delivery in severe asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis.
Dr. Rapeport's appointment as a Board Member is for a period until the 2009 annual shareholders' meeting. He is an independent Board Member and also is appointed as a member of the Audit Committee.
Dr. Rapeport's appointment fills the vacancy created by the decease of Board Member Dr. Barry Ross in April 2008.
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.
CONTACTS
Galapagos NV Onno van de Stolpe, CEO Tel: +31 6 2909 8028 ir@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 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 historic or 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.
