Selvita to acquire Fidelta from Galapagos

-Strengthening Selvita’s position as one of the largest preclinical contract research organizations in Europe -

• Acquisition substantially expands Selvita’s integrated drug discovery services offering
• Transaction will almost double Selvita’s revenues
• Enterprise value of € 31.2M  to be paid in cash
• Fidelta to continue performing drug discovery services for Galapagos for the next five years

Mechelen, Belgium and Krakow, Poland – 23 November 2020, 22.15 CET – Galapagos NV [Euronext & NASDAQ: GLPG] and Selvita S.A. [WSE: SLV] – announced today that they have signed an agreement under which Selvita will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares in Fidelta d.o.o. for an enterprise value of € 31.2M plus the customary adjustments for net cash and working capital.

Fidelta is a contract research organization within the Galapagos Group of companies, with core scientific competences in inflammation, fibrosis, and anti-infectives. It currently employs 181 employees, including over 150 highly experienced scientists, providing integrated drug discovery services in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, with a proven track record of accomplished laboratory projects over many years. Fidelta is located in state-of-the art R&D facilities in Zagreb, Croatia which offer almost 6,000 m2 of research space. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close on the 4^th of January 2021.

Galapagos is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company with a deep pipeline of novel mechanism of action candidates and commercial operations in Europe; as such, the CRO activities offered by Fidelta no longer fit with its strategy.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Fidelta will be fully consolidated under the Selvita Group, and will continue to operate under the Fidelta name.

More comprehensive offering and opening of new growth opportunities

The scope of services provided by Fidelta is complementary to Selvita’s offerings and will enable Selvita to build a competitive advantage in business areas such as DMPK, in vivo pharmacology, and toxicology. Selvita will also increase its scale of operations within medicinal chemistry and in vitro pharmacology, resulting in significant strengthening of its market position.

Fidelta's therapeutic areas of expertise align with current market trends, as infectious diseases, inflammation, and fibrosis are all areas of core expertise for Fidelta and are becoming increasingly major areas of interest for pharma companies due to the significant and unmet medical needs.