Galapagos NV (PINKSHEETS:GLPYY) Mechelen, Belgium; 22 July 2008 - Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) have extended their agreement with Galapagos' service division BioFocus DPI for the operation of the Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository (MLSMR) until December 2010. According to the terms of this agreement, Galapagos will receive more than $9 million (€5.7 million) over the course of the two year extension.

BioFocus DPI runs a compound management facility for a number of industrial and U.S. government customers out of its Compound Focus, Inc. subsidiary in South San Francisco. Home to the MLSMR since 2004, this facility acquires and stores compounds under the contract with NIH and distributes these compounds for high-throughput biological screening throughout the NIH's academic network in the U.S.

"We are pleased that the NIH has elected to continue working with BioFocus DPI. Through this extended agreement, the compound management facility has once again demonstrated that it is a leading provider of these services," said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos.

About the Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository (a Roadmap initiative) The NIH MLSMR collects samples for high throughput biological screening and distributes them to the NIH Molecular Libraries Screening Center Network. MLSMR is a key component of the Molecular Libraries Initiative, a NIH Roadmap project supporting 'new pathways to discovery in the 21st century'. The project is funded in whole with U.S. Federal funds from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under contract HHS-N-278-2004-41001C with Compound Focus, Inc.

About Galapagos and BioFocus DPI 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 BioFocus DPI division 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 470 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.

CONTACT

Galapagos NV André Hoekema, PhD SVP Corporate Development Tel: +31 65 151 7933 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.

Galapagos NV

http://www.glpg.com

ISIN: BE0003818359

Stock Identifier: XBRU.GLPG

US: PINKSHEETS:GLPYY

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