Business
Ligand to Divest Vernalis Research Operations
Consideration includes $25 million cash payment plus Ligand retains economics on completed partnerships and share of economics on current collaborations SAN
About this update from Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
[{"type":"text","content":"\nConsideration includes $25 million cash payment plus Ligand retains economics on completed partnerships and share of economics on current collaborations\n\n SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nLigand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) announces the sale of Ligand’s Vernalis research operations and internal programs to HitGen Inc. (SHA: 688222) for $25 million in cash. Under the terms of the agreement, Ligand will retain economic rights on completed collaboration licenses as well as a share of the economic rights on current research collaboration contracts. In addition, Vernalis will continue to support certain existing Ligand partnerships. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020, subject to customary closing conditions.\n\n“This is an opportune time to divest the United Kingdom-based operations given our recent acquisitions of four U.S.-based companies that expand our domestic presence and capabilities and fortify our antibody discovery and protein expression businesses. This transaction with HitGen represents an attractive return on our purchase of Vernalis in October 2018, while we maintain economic rights to the promising partnerships that initially attracted us to Vernalis, including with Verona and Corvus,” said John Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand. “We will be transitioning to HitGen approximately 80 employees as well as related laboratories and operations. HitGen is highly enthusiastic about securing a physical presence in the UK with a well-managed, fully built out R&D company. Ligand is focused on leveraging our main technology platforms including our antibody discovery, protein expression and Captisol businesses.”\n\n“I want to acknowledge the extraordinary work our colleagues at Vernalis have done over the past two years during our time of ownership. They are talented scientists who have been a pleasure to work with as they solve important R&D challenges for partners,” continued Higgins.\n\nLigand retains economic rights to a portfolio of eight fully-funded partnered programs, including RPL554 (Ensifentrine), a Phase 3 novel treatment for COPD partnered with Verona Pharma, and CPI-444 (Ciforadenant), a Phase 1b/2 adenosine A2A receptor antagonist for treating various cancers partnered with Corvus Pharmaceuticals. Ligand also maintains rights to a Phase 1/2 HSP90 inhibitor, wh...