Galapagos to close cell therapy business after search for buyer comes up empty

Galapagos changed course earlier this year, announcing that it no longer wanted to focus on cell therapy and would seek buyers for the business. After shopping around for months, Galapagos discovered that no one else in the biopharmaceutical industry wanted them either.

The strategic review and sales process that began in May resulted in a limited number of non-binding offers, mostly from financial investors. None of these offers came with conditions or financing that would reasonably support the future of the cell therapy assets, so the activity will cease, the Belgium-based company announced Tuesday. The decision follows an extensive review that took into account the investment required to maintain the cell therapy business as well as “changing market dynamics.”

“Based on this assessment and extensive input from its advisors, Galapagos intends to terminate its cell therapy operations,” the company said in its statement. “This intention to end cell therapy activity is intended to support a stronger and more sustainable future for the Galapagos.”

Not long ago, Galapagos envisioned cell therapy as its future. The company aimed to improve currently available cell therapies, which are made through a multi-step process that involves harvesting a patient’s immune cells and turning them into targeted cancer fighters in a remote lab — a process that can take a month or more. The Galapagos approach uses technology that allows manufacturing of these therapies at the point of care or in a centralized location, reducing the time needed to prepare and deliver a therapy to a patient to approximately one week.

Galapagos, which began in 1999 as a developer of small molecule drugs for inflammatory disorders, announced plans in January to divest all of its assets, leaving its Galapagos legacy to focus on developing cancer cell therapies. The company revised those plans in May, announcing it would seek buyers for all of its assets, including the cell therapy business and its clinical-stage programs. Galapagos would then use its capital to acquire or license clinical-stage drugs in immunology, oncology and virology. This would also continue the partnership Galapagos had with Gilead Sciences. Gilead retains a stake in Galapagos.

Cell therapy is becoming a hot area for negotiations. Earlier this month, Bristol Myers Squibb reached a $1.5 billion deal to buy preclinical company Orbital Therapeutics. This announcement follows the mergers and acquisitions efforts of AstraZeneca, AbbVie and Gilead Sciences. Each of these transactions brings in vivo cell therapy platforms and programs that avoid the complexities and infrastructure required by ex vivo cell therapies, including the treatments Galapagos is developing. These agreements also offer their large pharmaceutical acquirers the opportunity to expand the scope of cell therapy to the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

The Galapagos are not the only ones moving away from cell therapies. Earlier this month, Takeda Pharmaceutical announced that re-prioritizing its portfolio would result in the cessation of its cell therapy work. Shortly after, Novo Nordisk announced that it would shut down its cell therapy operations as part of a broader restructuring of the company.

The Galapagos board voted unanimously in favor of ceasing the cell therapy business, with the exception of two Gilead-appointed directors who recused themselves from the vote. Galapagos said it would consider “any viable proposal to acquire all or part of the cell therapy business” during the liquidation process. The abandonment of cell therapy will lead to the closure of sites in Leiden, Netherlands, and Basel, Switzerland, in Europe; Princeton, New Jersey and Pittsburgh in the United States; and Shanghai, China. An estimated 365 employees at these sites will lose their jobs. What remains of Galapagos will retain its headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium.

At the end of the first half of 2025, Galapagos reported its cash position stood at €3.1 billion (about $3.6 billion). This capital will be spent on commercial deals to build a new pipeline under its new management team. In May, the Galapagos Board of Directors named industry veteran Henry Gosebruch to succeed retiring Paul Stoffels as CEO.

Galapagos said the complete cessation of the cell therapy business is expected to result in between €100 million and €125 million in operating costs from the fourth quarter of 2025 to 2026, and between €150 million and €200 million in one-off restructuring costs in 2026. Galapagos said an updated cash flow outlook for 2025 will be provided with the third quarter earnings report. company’s 2025 quarter in early November.

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