Business
Ligand Pursuing Plans for OmniAb to Become a Standalone Public Company
Strategic Decision Based Upon Recent Business Success and Plans to Support Continued Growth and Investments in OmniAb’s Drug Discovery Platform Conference
About this update from Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
[{"type":"text","content":"\nStrategic Decision Based Upon Recent Business Success and Plans to Support Continued Growth and Investments in OmniAb’s Drug Discovery Platform\n\nConference Call Begins at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time Today\n\n EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nLigand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) today announced it is pursuing plans to split Ligand into two separate, publicly traded companies with one featuring the OmniAb business, and the other featuring Ligand’s existing collection of core royalties and the technologies, pipeline and contracts associated with the Pelican protein expression platform and the Captisol business. The spin-off is intended to create two companies with dedicated operational focus, business-specific capital allocation, agility to meet partner needs, and compelling focused investment profiles.\n\n“Our OmniAb business continues to have an outstanding year with the first regulatory approval for an OmniAb-derived antibody received during the third quarter and a second approval anticipated by year-end,” said John Higgins, CEO of Ligand. “We believe more than ever that OmniAb offers one of the industry’s leading antibody discovery platforms and that the business is primed for success for years to come. After significant planning and analysis, we have concluded we are operating two distinct, high-growth companies within Ligand. Along with outside advisors we have determined the time is right to pursue a strategic plan to create two independent companies and accelerate investment into the OmniAb platform and technologies to further drive value.”\n\nBased on initial management and advisor review, an IPO and eventual distribution of OmniAb shares to Ligand shareholders is the leading option under consideration at this time. The IPO would be of newly issued shares of OmniAb, Inc., which would include the Ab Initio computational antigen design technology, Icagen’s ion channel technology, the xPloration high-throughput screening technology, and the suite of OmniAb transgenic animals used for antibody discovery. In an IPO, Ligand expects OmniAb to issue less than 20% of its common stock, with Ligand retaining the remaining interest, which would eventually be distributed to Ligand stockholders in a manner generally intended to qualify as a tax-free transaction. Ligand's OmniAb strategic review is in response to the o...