Galapagos NV

Galapagos business update

Mechelen, Belgium; 14 November 2008 – Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announces today that third quarter 2008 operational and financial results were in line with management expectations. These results encourage the Company to retain full year 2008 financial guidance given earlier this year.

Galapagos anticipates full-year group revenues of €75 - €80 million in 2008, a growth in the 20% range compared to 2007. Management remains confident that the restructuring and consolidation efforts in BioFocus DPI will start to pay off in 2008 and will contribute to bringing the division back into profitability. R&D expenditure will not exceed €50 million. Full year cash burn in 2008 is expected be limited to around €25 million, leading to an expected year-end cash position of approximately €25 million.

Galapagos made several announcements on its progress in the third quarter of 2008. The Company announced the first milestone in the osteoporosis alliance with Lilly and the licensing by Boehringer Ingelheim of drug targets from its autoimmune collaboration. Galapagos acquired Sareum’s structure based drug discovery capabilities to strengthen the offering of the service division. BioFocus DPI signed agreements with the NIH and UCB, and out-licensed drug discovery databases to the EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute. Delta Lloyd Verzekeringen notified that it has acquired a 5.4% position in Galapagos, while ProStrakan notified that it no longer holds a position in Galapagos. In late October, Galapagos announced that an investigator-led Phase I/II study with Nanocort® demonstrated safety and good response in rheumatoid arthritis. In early November, Galapagos announced the sale of its San Diego facility to ChemVentures, confirming that the transaction will have no impact on full year 2008 financial guidance, and that it will have a positive impact on margins for BioFocus DPI going forward. Galapagos remains on track to have three programs in the clinic in 2009.

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 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 about 460 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

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.