Galapagos appoints
David Smith as Chief Financial Officer
Mechelen, Belgium;
9 November, 2005 – Galapagos (Euronext &
LSE: GLPG), a genomics-based drug discovery company, has
appointed David R. Smith as Chief Financial Officer to Galapagos
per February 1, 2006. With this appointment, Galapagos further
strengthens its Executive Committee to lead the Company
in its next phase of development. David Smith joins Galapagos
from AstraZeneca Netherlands. Upon his arrival, Vicky Gwosdz,
currently Head of Finance of Galapagos, will continue as
Controller at Galapagos.
"We are very pleased that someone of David's caliber
has agreed to join us," commented Onno van de Stolpe,
CEO of Galapagos. "David has very relevant experience
for us, having worked as a CFO in the pharma industry, having
been involved with a number of pharma R&D projects,
and having both accountancy and scientific degrees. His
international exposure will also be a tremendous asset to
the now enlarged Galapagos organization that is based in
three countries. I want to thank Vicky Gwosdz for the excellent
role as Head of Finance that she has fulfilled during an
exciting time for the Company and I am glad that she will
take up her controlling activities at Galapagos going forward."
"I was singularly impressed with the quality of the
team, ambition level and product offering that it is a great
opportunity to join the recently expanded group," said
David Smith “I am looking forward to starting at Galapagos
and contributing to the further growth of the Company.”
David Smith (40) joins Galapagos after eight years with
AstraZeneca. He has spent four years as a Marketing Company
CFO, most recently in the Netherlands, where he is also
a Board member of the AstraZeneca Dutch Holdings Group.
Initially he was appointed by Zeneca, UK, to undertake a
number of change projects in R&D Finance. After the
merger with Astra he moved to Sweden to take up the role
of Cardiovascular Therapy Area Finance Director and additionally
helped with the integration activities of the enlarged R&D
division. He trained as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers
& Lybrand, Leeds, and after a period in the receivership
group, moved with the firm to Dubai where he was audit manager
to a variety of industries and international clients. He
has a degree in Molecular Biophysics from the University
of Leeds. David will be based at the BioFocus offices in
Saffron Walden, UK.
There are no further details to be disclosed under Schedule
2(g) and Rule 17 of the AIM rules.
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 the 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, encompassing target discovery
and validation, and drug discovery services through to delivery
of pre-clinical candidates. In addition, BioFocus provides
adenoviral reagents for rapid identification and validation
of novel drug targets and compound libraries for screening.
Galapagos currently employs 193 people, including 74 PhDs,
and occupies facilities in Mechelen, Belgium, Saffron Walden,
UK and Leiden, The Netherlands. The partners of Galapagos
include Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim,
Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Organon, Serono, Vertex,
and Wyeth. More information about Galapagos and BioFocus
can be found at www.glpg.com.
Contact
Galapagos NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 290 98028
