Galapagos appoints Bart Filius as President and Chief Operating Officer
Galapagos announced that its Supervisory Board has promoted Bart Filius to President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). Going forward, CEO Onno van de Stolpe will maintain oversight of the research and development activities, while Bart Filius will take responsibility for business development, commercial strategy, finance, human resources, and other business operations.
Bart Filius joined Galapagos in 2014 as Chief Financial Officer and subsequently took on the responsibility as COO in 2017. During these years, Bart managed the substantial growth of the company, successfully conducted the Nasdaq IPO, and played a leading role in the negotiations for the R&D partnership with Gilead.
Prior to joining Galapagos, Bart spent 13 years at Sanofi, where he had leadership roles of increasing responsibility in finance, country management and M&A. In his early career, Bart was a strategy consultant at Arthur D. Little. Bart holds an MBA from INSEAD.
Commenting on the promotion, CEO Onno van de Stolpe said, “I’m delighted that Bart will take up this new role. He has been instrumental in transforming Galapagos into a fully integrated biotech, and he has proven that he has outstanding strategic vision, business acumen, and leadership skills. Going forward, I want to give my full attention to research and development and our strategy to develop first-in-class medicines based on the discovery of novel targets.”
Bart Filius added, “I’m highly energized by the opportunity to lead Galapagos into the future, together with Onno and the Management Board. We are in the midst of launching our first commercial product and are preparing for future indications. Galapagos is very keen to broaden its portfolio through smart business development and has the financial resources to do so. To achieve our goals, our business operations need to run smoothly. I look forward with confidence to working on these 3 priorities with the talented team of people that we have on board. These are challenging but exciting times for Galapagos.”
About Galapagos
Galapagos NV discovers and develops small molecule medicines with novel modes of action, several of which show promising patient results and are currently in late-stage development in multiple diseases. Our pipeline comprises Phase 3 through to discovery programs in inflammation, fibrosis, and other indications. Our ambition is to become a leading global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative medicines. More information at www.glpg.com.