Mechelen, Belgium; 14 April 2008 – Galapagos
NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today the appointment of Dr.
Piet Wigerinck as Senior Vice President of Development.
As a member of Galapagos’ Executive Team, Dr. Wigerinck
will oversee the development of Galapagos’ drug candidates,
including pre-clinical development, chemistry manufacturing
& control (CM&C), regulatory aspects, and clinical
development.
Dr. Piet Wigerinck joins
Galapagos from Tibotec in Belgium (a subsidiary of Johnson
& Johnson) where he was VP Drug Discovery, Early Development
and CM&C, and a member of the Management Board. He started
his professional career as a medicinal chemist at Janssen
Research Foundation in 1992. He then joined Tibotec in 1998,
where, under his leadership, TMC114 (PrezistaTM) was selected
and moved forward into clinical trials. Dr. Wigerinck also
played a key role in Tibotec’s expansion into novel
diseases such as Hepatitis C and advanced several compounds
into Phase I and Phase II clinical trials. He brings over
15 years of research and development experience from both
big pharma and biotech to Galapagos. Piet Wigerinck holds
a PhD from the K.U. Leuven and is inventor on more than
25 patent applications.
Galapagos transitioning
to clinical development
The appointment of Dr. Wigerinck reflects Galapagos’
transition from a pure discovery company to an organization
with a maturing pipeline. “We are very pleased that
Piet has accepted this challenging role in leading our drug
development, a great addition to our highly successful drug
discovery efforts led by Graham Dixon,” said Onno
van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. “Piet’s strong
track record will be an important asset as we move forward
with our first-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 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.
CONTACT
Galapagos NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
ir@glpg.com
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