Mechelen, Belgium; 30 December 2008 – Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced that it has received transparency notifications from several major shareholders pursuant to the Belgian transparency legislation (Belgian Act of 2 May 2007) concerning major holdings in Belgian listed companies.

Galapagos has 21,188,829 shares outstanding. The following shareholders informed Galapagos of their shareholding as of 1 September 2008:

Galapagos was informed on 24 December 2008 that Dorset Management Corporation sold all of its remaining shares in the Company to institutional investors, including Delta Lloyd Verzekeringen. Via a new transparency declaration, Delta Lloyd Verzekeringen informed Galapagos that they now hold 2,485,000 shares for an 11.7% shareholding in the Company.

The above shareholders made their declarations separately and are acting independently. Johnson & Johnson holds its shares through Tibotec-Virco Comm. VA in Belgium. Delta Lloyd Verzekeringen is a subsidiary of Aviva plc. Apax hold their shares through Altamir Amboise SCA and Apax France VI FCPR.

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 ADMET products to select compounds. Galapagos currently employs 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 6290 98028
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.