MECHELEN, Belgium, Nov. 9, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Galapagos (Euronext:GLPG) (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, U.K.
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.