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Ligand Earns $3 Million Milestone Payment from Palvella Therapeutics
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) announces it has earned a $3 million milestone payment from Palvella
About this update from Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
[{"type":"text","content":" SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nLigand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) announces it has earned a $3 million milestone payment from Palvella Therapeutics as a result of Palvella raising $45 million in an oversubscribed Series C financing to leading biotechnology crossover and venture investors. The milestone payment will consist of $2 million in cash and $1 million in Palvella Series C Preferred Stock.\n\n\nPalvella is a privately-held rare disease biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing pathogenetically targeted therapies for serious, rare genetic diseases with no approved treatments. In December 2018 Ligand entered into a development funding and royalties agreement with Palvella to advance their lead product candidate PTX-022 (QTORIN™ 3.9% rapamycin anhydrous gel) for the treatment of pachyonychia congenita (PC), a rare, chronically debilitating and lifelong genetic disease estimated to affect more than 9,000 individuals in the U.S. In addition, Palvella’s second product candidate, PTX-367, will enter into a late-stage clinical study for individuals with Gorlin syndrome. Ligand paid $10 million to Palvella and in return will receive a tiered royalty on net sales of certain Palvella products (including PTX-022 and PTX-367) in the mid-to-upper single digits, as well as regulatory and financing milestones.\n\n\n“We are proud of our history of partnering with innovative biopharmaceutical companies to develop important medicines, including our relationship with Palvella. The PTX-022 program is currently being assessed in a Phase 2/3 pivotal study and is led by a team of distinguished and capable scientists who have identified a novel way to treat PC,” said John Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand Pharmaceuticals. “Palvella intends to deploy the Series C proceeds to support the advancement of PTX-022 for the treatment of adults with PC and ultimately prepare for commercialization. We are also pleased to see the progress Palvella has made advancing PTX-367 for people afflicted with Gorlin syndrome, a disease where patients can develop hundreds of basal cell carcinomas, oftentimes beginning in adolescence.”\n\n\nIn March 2020 Palvella announced completion of enrollment in its Phase 2/3 pivotal VALO Study of PTX-022 in adults with PC. Palvella expects topline results from this trial to be av...