Stoffels strikes up new biotech in return to Galapagos cell therapy mission

Former Galapagos CEO Paul Stoffels has founded Armed Cell Therapeutics in Belgium to acquire the CAR T cell therapy programs that Galapagos, now Lakefront Biotherapeutics, abandoned in October 2025. Armed pays about $9 million upfront plus $230 million in milestones and royalties, just under $240 million in total, for the preclinical assets, which originated from AboundBio and target non-Hodgkin lymphoma and small cell lung cancer. Stoffels will chair the board, Willemien Kremer becomes CEO, and the company aims to move the programs into the clinic.