MECHELEN, BELGIUM--(Marketwire - Mar 21, 2012) - Galapagos NV (EURONEXT BRUSSELS: [ GLPG ]) announced today that it has identified a pre-clinical compound in its alliance with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV. This achievement triggered a milestone payment of EUR6.6 million to Galapagos.

Today's pre-clinical candidate was developed by Galapagos against a novel target discovered with Galapagos' proprietary platform. Galapagos will now start comprehensive safety evaluation to advance the compound towards Phase I clinical trials.

"Four years into the alliance, which started at the novel target stage, we are excited to have delivered the first pre-clinical candidate," said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. "Our alliances with pharma provide financing to survive industry standard attrition and get a certain percentage of programs through to the clinic. In this way, Galapagos continues to build a strong R&D track record by efficiently delivering high quality results, both in its alliance and proprietary therapeutic pipelines."

In October 2007, Galapagos announced an alliance agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica providing Janssen Pharmaceutica with option rights to acquire worldwide, commercial licenses to certain Galapagos internal programs. Galapagos is eligible to receive up to EUR73 million in milestones per program, plus royalties. To date, Galapagos has received EUR31 million in alliance payments from Janssen Pharmaceutica.

About Galapagos

Galapagos (EURONEXT BRUSSELS: [ GLPG ]) (PINKSHEETS: [ GLPYY ]) is a mid-size biotechnology company specialized in the discovery and development of small molecule and antibody therapies with novel modes-of-action. The Company is progressing GLPG0634, as well as one of the largest pipelines in biotech, with four programs in development and over 50 discovery programs. The Galapagos Group has about 800 employees and operates facilities in six countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More info at: [ www.glpg.com ]

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Source: Galapagos NV via Thomson Reuters ONE [HUG#1595896]