Galapagos NV announced that during its meeting of 12 June 2023, the Board of Directors co-opted Dr. Susanne Schaffert as non-executive independent Director. Dr. Schaffert replaces Dr. Rajesh Parekh who stepped down on 10 June 2023. After an extraordinary 27-year career at Novartis in various global roles, including commercialization, market access, investor relations, business development &licensing, acquisitions and company integration, Dr. Schaffert retired in 2022 as President of Novartis Oncology and Member of the Novartis Executive Committee.

In that role, Dr. Schaffert ran a global $15 billion business across 80 countries, accelerating the internal product pipeline with six new clinical programs, multiple global launches, and making the first CAR-T therapy, Kymriah, commercially available in 36 countries, including the US, Europe, and Japan. Dr. Schaffert is also a member of the Board of Directors of Incyte Corporation and Novo Holdings A/S, and a member of the Novo Advisory Group (NAG) and the Executive Education Board of St. Gallen Business School.