Ligand Completes Acquisition of Icagen Core Assets, Partnered Programs and Ion Channel Technologies
April 02 2020 - 4:02PM
Business Wire
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND)
announces the completion of its acquisition of the core assets of
Icagen’s North Carolina operations. As previously announced, the
purchase price was $15 million in cash, and Icagen is entitled to
receive additional cash payments based on certain revenue
achievements.
“We are very pleased to add the Icagen technologies,
partnerships and this profitable business to Ligand,” said John
Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand. “We all know how
extremely challenging the current business environment is, and I
want to commend the teams on both sides who worked together to get
this deal done. It’s a fantastic acquisition that will enable
Ligand to expand its services to current partners and drive new
collaborations. We expect the Icagen ion channel capabilities will
have particular synergy with our Vernalis and OmniAb® antibody
discovery platforms. We welcome our new Icagen colleagues to
Ligand.”
Higgins continued, “While we adjust to conducting business
during the pandemic, Ligand’s balance sheet remains very strong,
and we continue to generate positive cash flow. We have a
successful track record of acquiring innovative companies, and
subsequently growing revenue, increasing our partner portfolio, and
leveraging technology and customer synergies. Given our significant
financial resources and talented operating team, we are well
positioned to pursue acquisitions and new opportunities to expand
our business.”
The acquisition of Icagen brings Ligand the following:
- Technology Platform. Icagen’s extensive biological
capability focused on ion channels, transporters and x-ray
fluorescence, along with a strong track record in novel drug
discovery from screening to lead optimization. Ion channels are key
components in a wide variety of biological processes that involve
rapid changes in cells and have broad therapeutic applicability
including cancer, metabolic disease, pain, neurological diseases,
infectious diseases and others.
- Roche Collaboration to develop and commercialize
therapies for neurological diseases. The collaboration provides
research funding, potential milestone payments of up to $274
million and tiered royalty payments should a drug be
commercialized.
- Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) Collaboration to
discover therapeutics to treat patients with cystic fibrosis caused
by specific genetic mutations. The CFF collaboration allows for up
to $11 million in research funding, milestone payments of up to $59
million and tiered royalties on sales, should a product be
commercialized.
- Proprietary Service Unit to Drive New Collaborations and
Revenue, including a 32-person R&D team based in Raleigh,
N.C., now known as Icagen, a Ligand Company, focused on drug
discovery of ion channels and transporters. Icagen provides Ligand
with an East Coast operation to efficiently serve partners and
brings a portfolio of current or recent/active collaboration
agreements with over 30 biopharma companies plus an ongoing
business development pipeline.
- Novel, Unpartnered Programs that include six
preclinical-stage assets applicable to a range of therapy areas
including diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, pain and other
disorders.
About Icagen’s Ion Channel Technology and Capability, and
Integration with Ligand Technologies
Icagen’s medicinal chemistry, in silico and computational
chemistry (including artificial intelligence) applications and
x-ray fluorescence assays integrate into and expand the drug
discovery work at Vernalis as part of the Vernalis Design Platform
(VDP). Additionally, Icagen’s novel reagent generation and assays
can support OmniAb antibody discovery programs and can be accessed
by partners as part of the OmniAb platform when pursuing high-value
ion channels and transporter antibody targets.
About Ligand Pharmaceuticals
Ligand is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing or
acquiring technologies that help pharmaceutical companies discover
and develop medicines. Our business model creates value for
stockholders by providing a diversified portfolio of biotech and
pharmaceutical product revenue streams that are supported by an
efficient and low corporate cost structure. Our goal is to offer
investors an opportunity to participate in the promise of the
biotech industry in a profitable, diversified and lower-risk
business than a typical biotech company. Our business model is
based on doing what we do best: drug discovery, early-stage drug
development, product reformulation and partnering. We partner with
other pharmaceutical companies to leverage what they do best
(late-stage development, regulatory management and
commercialization) to ultimately generate our revenue. Ligand’s
OmniAb technology platform is a patent-protected transgenic animal
platform used in the discovery of fully human mono- and bispecific
therapeutic antibodies. The Captisol® platform technology is a
patent-protected, chemically modified cyclodextrin with a structure
designed to optimize the solubility and stability of drugs. The
Vernalis Design Platform (VDP) integrates protein structure
determination and engineering, fragment screening and molecular
modeling, with medicinal chemistry, to help enable success in novel
drug discovery programs against highly-challenging targets. Ab
Initio™ technology and services for the design and preparation of
customized antigens enable the successful discovery of therapeutic
antibodies against difficult-to-access cellular targets. Ligand has
established multiple alliances, licenses and other business
relationships with the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies
including Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi, Janssen, Takeda, Gilead
Sciences and Baxter International. For more information, please
visit www.ligand.com.
Follow Ligand on Twitter @Ligand_LGND.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements by Ligand
that involve risks and uncertainties and reflect Ligand’s judgment
as of the date of this release. The risks related to the Icagen
transaction include the risk that the anticipated benefits of the
acquisition may not be realized or may be affected by competition
or other external events. There are additional risks that apply to
statements regarding the assets and business being acquired from
Icagen, the profitability of the assets and business being acquired
from Icagen and the availability of synergies with Ligand’s
Vernalis and OmniAb businesses. Actual events or results may differ
from our expectations. For example, there can be no assurance that
the Roche or CFF programs will be able to successfully identify any
desirable drug candidates or that any drug candidates developed in
such programs would be clinically or commercially successful, all
of which might result in the potential milestone payments and
royalties not being earned; Ligand’s ability to manage and
integrate the assets and business acquired from Icagen; the
availability of Icagen technology might not generate additional
Vernalis and/or OmniAb business for Ligand; and Ligand’s Vernalis
and/or OmniAb partners might choose not to utilize Icagen
technology (or might not achieve successful results, if they do).
The failure to meet expectations with respect to any of the
foregoing matters may reduce Ligand’s stock price. Additional
information concerning these and other important risk factors
affecting Ligand can be found in Ligand’s prior press releases
available at www.ligand.com as well as in Ligand’s public periodic
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at
www.sec.gov. Ligand disclaims any intent or obligation to update
these forward-looking statements beyond the date of this press
release, except as required by law. This caution is made under the
safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200402005742/en/
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Patrick O’Brien
investors@ligand.com (858) 550-7768 @Ligand_LGND
LHA Investor Relations Bruce Voss bvoss@lhai.com (310)
691-7100
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