The abandoned CAR T cell therapies of Galapagos have found a new home under the very CEO who placed them front and center at the company: Paul Stoffels. The former Johnson & Johnson executive has formed a new biotech in Belgium called Armed Cell Therapeutics to take on the project, offering just under $240 million in biobucks to secure the assets from Galapagos, now known as Lakefront Biotherapeutics.
It’s a been a long and winding tale for the cell therapies, Stoffels and Lakefront. But the licensing deal, announced Wednesday, brings an end to at least one significant chapter.
In early 2025, then-Galapagos announced a plan to split into two businesses: one taking the cell therapy assets and another with a deep war chest to hunt down new assets to develop. The company at the time was helmed by Stoffels, who had promised a five-year turnaround when he took the job in 2022. He had carefully curated Galapagos’ cell therapy portfolio through a series of acquisitions.
But Stoffels was ousted in spring 2025 to make way for Henry Gosebruch, who had been running the proposed spinout that was hunting for new assets.
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Under this new leadership, the cell therapy programs were officially abandoned in October 2025 as Gosebruch changed directions. In May 2026, the company rebranded to Lakefront Biotherapeutics.
In March, the company and partner Gilead Sciences acquired Ouro Medicines for $2.1 billion, securing a pipeline of T cell engager therapies for autoimmune diseases. The lead asset from the transaction is gamgertamig, which Lakefront is now developing in Phase 1/2 trials for autoimmune bullous diseases, autoimmune cytopenia and seropositive autoimmune diseases.
That left the cell therapy programs, which Lakefront had no intention of developing. Gosebruch, speaking to BioSpace in January, said that the programs would have required a massive investment to advance the technology far enough to tap into a very competitive market—one that is led in part by Gilead. Gosebruch said at the time that no one had come forward to buy the assets.
But the CEO did say that Stoffels was very invested in the programs. “Paul for many, many years and I have a lot of respect, but he was very, very focused on cell therapy,” Gosebruch explained. “That was sort of his mission, to bring this set of programs to patients. And I think, given how focused he was on that particular mission, I think he was not focused on opening up to other potential opportunities.”
Now, Stoffels has found a way to continue his work on the cell therapies via Armed. Stoffels founded the company with John Mellors, who previously led cell therapy discovery at Galapagos, and Peter Verhaeghe, a managing partner at Belgian law firm VVGB Advocaten/Avocats.
Armed’s lead programs—still in preclinical research—will focus on non-Hodgkin lymphoma and small cell lung cancer. The programs originated from AboundBio, which was one of the companies purchased by Galapagos during Stoffels’ tenure.
The new company offered Lakefront about $9 million upfront for the early-stage programs and $230 million on the backend in milestones, plus royalties.
“I’m pleased we were able to complete this sale of the early-stage cell therapy programs as it provides a path to continue to advance these assets on behalf of patients,” said Sooin Kwon, chief business officer at Lakefront. “Additionally, it offers Lakefront shareholders the opportunity to benefit from their potential future progress by the experienced team at Armed Cell Therapeutics.”
At the new company, Stoffels will yield the CEO chair to Willemijn Kremer after serving in the role on an interim basis, according to a separate Thursday press release from Armed. While the company is headquartered in Belgium, it will have operations in the Netherlands, R&D work in Pittsburgh and early development activities in Europe, Asia and the U.S.
Kremer also joins from Galapagos, where she served as VP of corporate development for cell therapy and chief of staff.
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Stoffels will chair Armed’s board, Verhaeghe will serve as a board member and Mellors will be chief scientific officer and board member.
“This acquisition gives us a strong scientific starting point and a team that knows these programs inside out,” Verhaeghe said in a Wednesday release from Armed.
Both Stoffels and Mellors emphasized that the CAR T cell therapy programs are highly differentiated, offering a chance to prevent relapse. Unlike traditional CAR T therapies, the assets have additional payloads to go after multiple targets, offering additional shots on goal to maintain anti-tumor activity.
“We have differentiated science and a team with deep experience in this field,” Stoffels said in a prepared statement. “Our focus now is to bring these programs to the clinic with speed and scientific rigor.”