Galapagos NV

Galapagos creates new warrant plans

Mechelen, Belgium; 2 July 2008 - Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today that its Board of Directors on 26 June 2008 has created and offered 250,065 warrants under a new warrant plan for Galapagos employees and consultants. Furthermore, the Extraordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting (EGM) held on 26 June 2008 approved the offer of 57,500 warrants for the benefit of directors of the company.

Since its inception in 1999, Galapagos has used warrant plans as an incentive and to allow personnel and management to be involved in the company’s growth and development. On 26 June 2008 the Board of Directors of Galapagos approved the “Warrant Plan 2008” within the framework of the authorized capital. Under this new warrant plan 250,065 warrants were created (subject to acceptance) and offered, substantially to employees of Galapagos and its affiliates and in secondary order for consultants. These warrants have an exercise period of eight years starting as of the date of the offer. On the same day, Galapagos’ EGM approved the “Warrant Plan 2008 (B),” creating (subject to acceptance) 57,500 warrants for the benefit of two directors of the company. These warrants have an exercise period of five years starting as of the date of the offer. The warrants from both plans have an exercise price of €5.60 (thirty days average closing price of the share on Euronext Brussels preceding date of issue), they are not transferable and cannot be exercised prior to the end of the third calendar year after the year in which they were granted to a beneficiary. Each warrant gives the right to subscribe to one new Galapagos share. Should the warrants be exercised, Galapagos will apply for the listing of the resulting new shares on a regulated stock market. The warrants as such will not be admitted to listing on any stock market.

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 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
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
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.