MECHELEN, BELGIUM–(EMWNews – July 22, 2008) –

Mechelen, Belgium; 22 July 2008 – Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG)

announced today that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)

have extended their agreement with Galapagos’ service division

BioFocus DPI for the operation of the Molecular Libraries Small

Molecule Repository (MLSMR) until December 2010. According to the

terms of this agreement, Galapagos will receive more than $9 million

(EUR 5.7 million) over the course of the two year extension.

BioFocus DPI runs a compound management facility for a number of

industrial and U.S. government customers out of its Compound Focus,

Inc. subsidiary in South San Francisco. Home to the MLSMR since

2004, this facility acquires and stores compounds under the contract

with NIH and distributes these compounds for high-throughput

biological screening throughout the NIH’s academic network in the

U.S.

“We are pleased that the NIH has elected to continue working with

BioFocus DPI. Through this extended agreement, the compound

management facility has once again demonstrated that it is a leading

provider of these services,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of

Galapagos.

About the Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository (a Roadmap

initiative)

The NIH MLSMR collects samples for high throughput biological

screening and distributes them to the NIH Molecular Libraries

Screening Center Network. MLSMR is a key component of the Molecular

Libraries Initiative, a NIH Roadmap project supporting ‘new pathways

to discovery in the 21st century’. The project is funded in whole

with U.S. Federal funds from the National Institutes of Health,

Department of Health and Human Services, under contract

HHS-N-278-2004-41001C with Compound Focus, Inc.

About Galapagos and BioFocus DPI

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 470 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

André Hoekema, PhD

SVP Corporate Development

Tel: +31 65 151 7933

[email protected]

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.

Copyright © Hugin AS 2008. All rights reserved.