Bausch & Lomb and Galapagos sign agreement to collaborate on ophthalmic disease research

Rochester, New York, USA and Mechelen, Belgium; 10 April 2008 - Bausch & Lomb, the eye health company, and Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG), a drug discovery company, announced today that they have entered into a collaborative research agreement. Bausch & Lomb will have the exclusive option to license select Galapagos compounds as development candidates for therapeutic uses in ophthalmic diseases.

"The agreement provides access to a group of compounds that may have excellent development candidate potential," said Praveen Tyle, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Bausch & Lomb. "The small molecule compounds under evaluation have very attractive in vitro and in vivo profiles. Our intent is to develop these compounds as unique therapies, tapping our research expertise in ophthalmic diseases."

"We are pleased to partner with Bausch & Lomb, a leader in the development of treatments for eye diseases. Our collaboration with Bausch & Lomb gives us the opportunity to leverage select compounds in a therapeutic area that we would not otherwise pursue," said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos.

Bausch & Lomb is responsible for the preclinical and clinical development of the select compounds for use in ophthalmic diseases. Under the terms of the collaboration, Galapagos will receive an upfront payment of US$400,000 and may receive research funding to support Bausch & Lomb's further development of the compounds for ophthalmic uses, plus future milestone payments. Pending successful development and commercialization under the license, potential total value of the payments exceeds US$50 million, plus royalties on the commercial sale of licensed products.