Trust & transparency

We are transparent. Our commitment to Trust & Transparency

Doing business ethically is about being a responsible corporate citizen. The standards we apply and decisions that we make every day are thoughtful and work to ensure that we act in the best interest of patients, people, and the planet. We build trust with our stakeholders by setting measurable goals, communicating them clearly, and being open and transparent about the progress we are making to deliver on them – both when we are doing well and when we need to make improvements.

We prioritize ethical management of our supply chain, vendors, and partners. Just as we seek partners and suppliers who share our commitment to the planet, we also ensure that they share our commitment to quality and ethical business practices. We refined our third-party onboarding through an enhanced risk assessment framework and due diligence on quality, IT security, data protection and privacy, compliance and ethics, and environment. Additionally, we continuously evaluate our supply chain to ensure continuity and optimization of costs, and we provide a consistent framework for partners and employees that outlines clear and comprehensive guidance for ethical and transparent behavior expectations across our company.

To ascertain that our products meet the highest quality standards, we work with qualified and certified (GMP-licensed) distributors that ensure that all processes related to receipt, storage, handling and final distribution to customers comply with the regulations. We regularly audit our GxP manufacturers and distributors.

We work to protect our people, patients, our planet, and our business by taking every reasonable measure to ensure that we all operate in accordance with the applicable regulations and standards and maintain compliance with all applicable laws.

We nurture a speak-up culture that encourages every one of our employees to share ideas, while also supporting our managers and leaders to embody a “Listen Up” culture. We implemented a "Speak Up" web-based reporting system to enable employees and third parties to raise any concerns regarding activities related to Galapagos. The reporting mechanism meets the requirements of the EU Whistleblowing directive and enables anonymous reporting when allowable. Individuals who wish to report a concern can choose from the local language that works best for them and can submit their report anonymously. We believe that this helps our employees and third parties to feel heard and also protected, while alerting Galapagos about any potential issues and enabling early corrective action as needed. All matters are fully reviewed and investigated as needed in accordance with our internal procedure which is managed by our Global Head of Compliance & Ethics. This framework is overseen by a Speak Up, Listen Up Committee, members of which are heads of Legal, HR, Internal Control and Compliance & Ethics, and, in the event of serious or material matters, escalated to the Chair of the Audit Committee.

We also nurture a culture of integrity, with the aim that our employees, partners and suppliers value and take accountability for upholding our standards.

We operate in an environment where the safety of patients is paramount. Until the transfer of the Marketing Authorisation for Jyseleca® to Alfasigma, we are responsible for the marketing of one medicine, Jyseleca®, in Europe. We implemented a pharmacovigilance system designed to monitor the safety of Jyseleca® and to detect any change to the benefit/risk profile.

Animal welfare

From a scientific perspective, it is not yet possible to examine all the complex interactions that a potential treatment triggers in a living organism without animal testing. Additionally, the regulatory and legal framework for drug development requires new medicines to be evaluated in animals to ensure the quality, safety, and efficacy of these product candidates. We continue to implement the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement) principles as set out in our Animal Welfare Policy. Animal welfare is reinforced through several key actions at the vendor level, including a surveillance process of incidents and their remediation and a communication plan on preemptive and reactive measures taken in animal studies.

Monitoring compliance of our vendors with Galapagos standards and animal welfare guidelines is part of the Animal Welfare Community mission. Although Galapagos uses vendors with state-of-the-art approaches, incidents might still happen occasionally. In such instances, we actively support investigation of the root cause, propose effective remediation solutions and diligently follow-up on any corrective actions. 100% of our vendors adhere to our Animal Welfare Policy.

In 2023, we identified 3 incidents with regard to animal welfare, in our own organization and also in one single vendor facility. We investigated the identified incidents and took appropriate measures to remediate them. All incidents were adequately handled.

On-site visits will be conducted to verify the effectiveness of the implemented actions in 2024. Monitoring of the ongoing remediation actions is planned.

Actions 2023

• We launched our Speak up, Listen Up program in 2022, continued the roll out in 2023, and we aim to make this integral to our routine new employee onboarding in 2024. As encouraged by our Speak Up, Listen Up program, we received a number of reports for potential non-compliance. One breach of our Code of Conduct was escalated to the Audit Committee in 2023. Appropriate measures were taken to address this breach.
• We launched an anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policy in 2023, and further communication and training on this topic is planned for 2024
• 94% of our employees completed our Code of Conduct training
• Since late 2022, the Third-Party Risk Assessment (TPRA) process for the onboarding of new vendors is mandatory, and going forward, we aim to use the TPRA as a KPI to measure compliance and ethics in our supply chain
• We executed an external screening of our 100 preferred suppliers. We are currently checking different risks factors, including ESG indicators; and
• The animal welfare remediation plan for addressing the identified gaps was completed in 2023. We implemented more than 14 major 3R initiatives, and 100% of our trusted suppliers adhere to our Animal Welfare Policy, reinforcing our expectations when working with third parties. The communication and crisis management plan were released, and the Animal Welfare webpage was created for increasing employee’s awareness. Multiple and regular communication on the 3Rs principles, as well as a participation in a major international initiative, were associated with a decrease in the number of animals used in 2023. Close follow-up on animal welfare incidents, with issue management as a full part of the study oversight, supported fast resolution of the incidents. All KPIs were met at the end of the year, indicating that our ethical values were understood, internally and externally.