Dive Brief:

• Galapagos on Wednesday announced that a “limited number” of potential buyers for its cell therapy business have come forward, and the company plans to announce the fate of the unit in coming weeks.
• The interested parties are consortia, mainly made up of financial investors, Galapagos said. The company’s board and executives are working with the potential bidders on due diligence and securing financial commitments. Where appropriate, the company is “supporting” the fundraising efforts of the potential bidders, Galapagos said.
• Fully-financed, binding offers are due within weeks, Galapagos said. Once any offers have been received, company executives will decide whether to divest the cell therapy business or pursue “alternative courses of action.” That announcement will come no later than Nov. 5, when Galapagos plans to release third-quarter financial results.

Dive Insight:

The Belgian biotechnology company has been on a roller coaster for the last decade. In 2015, Galapagos inked a key research partnership with Gilead Sciences, which the larger company opted to deepen with a $5.1 billion deal four years later. The agreement included payments for rights to drugs in Galapagos’ pipeline as well a higher equity stake in the company.

But research and development setbacks left Galapagos foundering. The company’s American depositary receipts, which briefly topped $274 in February 2020, plummeted to less than $23 in February 2025. Restructuring efforts, including new leadership, have helped the stock advance in recent months. The ADRs traded around $35 early Thursday.

As part of the restructuring, Galapagos announced in January that it would split into two publicly traded companies – spinning out a company focused on business development and retaining the Galapagos name for the cell therapy unit. Galapagos even named Henry Gosebruch as the CEO of the planned spinout, hoping to draw on his dealmaking experience at J.P. Morgan and AbbVie.

Then in May, Galapagos told investors it was considering changing that plan. And in July, the company said it was weighing a sale of the cell therapy business.

Galapagos didn’t give any details about the potential suitors in its latest release, but the industry has seen a slight uptick recently in private equity interest. Bluebird bio earlier this year agreed to be acquired by Carlyle Group and SK Capital and go private. Similarly, Bavarian Nordic signed on to a $3 billion take-private offer from Nordic Capital and Permira. Bain Capital, meanwhile, joined with Bristol Myers Squibb to form a new biotech startup.