Galapagos Winds Down CGT Unit After Failed Sale Attempt

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — Belgian biotech Galapagos NV announced it will wind down its Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) division after failing to secure satisfactory offers for the unit, making it the latest major company to retreat from a sector facing growing commercial and manufacturing challenges.

The company will close its CGT operations to refocus on “new transformational business.” The restructuring is expected to lead to approximately 365 job losses across its sites in the Netherlands, Switzerland, the US, and China. Galapagos expects to incur substantial costs through the end of 2026, totaling between €250 million and €325 million in operating and reconstruction costs. The company stated it remains open to offers for a full or partial sale during the wind-down period.

High Costs and Scalability Driving Sector Shift

Galapagos’s decision underscores a broader, recent trend of retrenched investment and momentum loss across the CGT industry. Analysts point to steep manufacturing costs, scalability hurdles, and uncertain commercial returns as key factors prompting investors and developers to pivot toward lower-risk, later-stage programs.

This industry pullback has been marked by several high-profile exits:

• Novo Nordisk abandoned its R&D cell therapy division in October, laying off around 250 employees and halting programs for Parkinson’s and chronic heart failure.
• Takeda made a sudden U-turn, abandoning cell therapy research to focus on small molecules, biologics, and ADCs.
• Gilead Sciences’ Kite Pharma terminated a research collaboration with Shoreline for off-the-shelf cell therapies, a deal originally valued at over $2.3 billion.

Market Outlook: Not All Doom and Gloom

Despite the recent setbacks and corporate exits, the scientific consensus remains strong regarding CGT’s long-term potential. The global CGT market is estimated to be worth around $79 billion by 2030, according to a September 2025 GlobalData report.

Recent high-value deals signal that major pharma companies maintain confidence in the technology:

• AstraZeneca signed a deal worth up to $555 million for Algen Biotechnologies’ AI-driven gene-editing platform.
• AbbVie acquired Capstan for $2.1 billion in July to bolster its CAR-T pipeline.

Analysts emphasize that to smooth the path to market, the industry needs greater collaboration between regulators and developers, along with increased utilization of contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) to tackle the pressing issues of cost and scalability.