Bart Filius has been appointed as chief financial officer at Belhium-based biotech firm Galapagos.
He will start in the role from December 1, 2014, joining the executive committee of the company and will be responsible for finance, investor relations, IT and purchasing.
He joins from Sanofi, where he worked for 13 years. Over the past three years he has worked as chief financial officer at Sanofi Europe, helping the company recover from the patent cliff. Prior to this, he was chief financial officer and country manager of Sanofi in the Netherlands and VP for mergers and acquisitions.
Of his appointment, Filius said: “I am very excited to join Galapagos at this important point of its development. As we move forward and the pipeline matures further, I look forward to bringing my experience in finance and M&A to Galapagos.”
Galapagos announced earlier this year that it sold its Argenta and BioFocus service operations as part of a bid to reorient its business model from a “hybrid drug discovery service and pipeline company” to a research-focused biotech firm.
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos, said: “We are pleased to welcome Bart Filius into our executive team. His vast experience in big pharma and his sharp strategic view will help us bring Galapagos to the next level, as we prepare to have our rheumatoid arthritis molecule GLPG0634 enter phase III and progress more programmes into patients next year.”