In little more than a year, the genomics-based drug discovery company Galapagos has transformed itself from a 'target discovery and validation company' into the Galapagos Group, an organisation with facilities across Europe, the US and Japan, which has the capability of taking drug targets through to clinical candidates. This has largely been the result of two acquisitions: first, that of BioFocus in September 2005, and second, the purchase of the drug discovery service operations of Discovery Partners International in June 2006. In a recent interview with Fintan Walton, CEO of PharmaVentures, Onno van de Stolpe, the CEO of Galapagos, discussed the strategy behind these two deals and the significance of the company's ongoing collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). This article is based on that interview, and incorporates quotations from it.