Our purpose

Pioneering

for Patients

We are a pioneering, commercial-stage biotechnology company developing innovative medicines intended to improve people’s lives.

We discover and develop new medicines in order to offer new and better treatment options to patients affected by inflammatory diseases, cystic fibrosis, metabolic diseases, fibrosis, and other diseases.

We discover.

Our unique Target Discovery Platform is transforming how medicines are discovered.  Today our pipeline encompasses potential treatments in inflammatory diseases, fibrosis, metabolic diseases and infectious diseases.

We dare.

Our culture fuels our ambition to bring meaningful medicines to patients, with new modes of action that address the disease and its symptoms, in areas of high unmet need.

We care.

In our approach to combatting these diseases, we are committed to listening to patients to understand their daily challenges and unmet needs to inspire our science. We use this insight to inform our medicine development and focus on the health outcomes that truly matter to patients.

Who we are

Established over 20 years ago as a target discovery company, we have expanded and diversified and now run three key operational areas – research, development and commercialization.

Across all three areas we employ around 1,300 people, from 50 different nationalities and have operations located in 10 countries across Europe and in the US.

Understanding the true physical and emotional burden of medical conditions fuels our ambition: to bring life-changing treatments to people who need them most. To achieve this we use our three step approach:

Discover: Using human primary cells and patient cells we discover which proteins (targets) play a key role in causing diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases and fibrosis.

Develop: We then develop small molecules that inhibit these targets, restore the balance and thereby positively influence the course of a disease.

Deliver: To delivery revolutionary treatments that can save lives.

Our commitment
to inflammation

At Galapagos we believe we can have a meaningful impact on the lives of millions of people who currently live with an inflammatory disease and we are driven by the opportunity to make a difference.

Our commitment to inflammation is rooted in the history of our company. We were established over 20 years ago as a target discovery biotech company.

Chronic inflammatory diseases are currently estimated to affect one in every 20 people in Western society. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s Disease (CD) are all examples of inflammatory conditions affecting around 5 million Europeans.

Science & Innovation

Target Discovery Platform

We are pioneering for patients, transforming drug discovery with our unique target discovery platform. Most chronic diseases and disorders are caused by a disruption in the way in which certain proteins function. Using our discovery platform, based on research with human cells, we discover those proteins – which we call ‘targets’ – that play a key role in causing these diseases. Next, we develop small molecules which slow down or suppress the target proteins, restoring the balance and therefore positively influencing the course of diseases.
 

Galapagos has a database of over 6000 genes to identify potential targets that we can use to impact disease progression. Doing so, we aim to address its root cause rather than just treating the symptoms.
 

We also recognise the benefits of collaboration, where leveraging the expertise of others can help us go further and faster. We have embraced collaboration forming numerous partnerships in inflammation with healthcare professionals, research institutions, academia, scientists, discovery partners and patient organisations to help us. In 2019 we formed a 10-year global research and development collaboration with Gilead, to help people worldwide with inflammatory diseases to get access to our medicines.

Galapagos Nordic

We are dedicated to bringing new medicines to patients living across the Nordics region.

Our operations are based out of our Nordics cluster headquarters in Denmark, which is complemented with presence on the ground in Sweden, Norway and Finland.

"I’m delighted to be leading the Galapagos team in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden as we are making our first medicine available to patients with rheumatoid arthritis. We will go above and beyond to provide patients with novel treatments stemming from Galapagos' rich pipeline, aiming to address unmet medical needs for patients in Europe. Or as we like to put it at Galapagos: Pioneering for patients."

Marcel De Jong, Head of the Nordics Region

Working at Galapagos

We are always looking for talented individuals to join us on our journey; who are passionate about life sciences and want to use their knowledge to improve lives.

Our values

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