Ligand Licenses Four Programs to Seelos Therapeutics
September 22 2016 - 09:00AM
Business Wire
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND)
announces the licensing of rights to four programs to Seelos
Therapeutics, Inc., a newly formed biopharmaceutical company
focused on central nervous system (CNS), respiratory and other
disorders.
The licensed therapeutic programs include Ligand's aplindore
program for the treatment of various CNS disorders, a CRTH2
antagonist program for the treatment of respiratory disorders, a
Captisol-enabled™ acetaminophen program for pain and fever
management and an H3 receptor antagonist program for the treatment
of narcolepsy.
Under the license agreement, Ligand is entitled to receive
initial payments in equity or cash of $1.3 million upon Seelos’
completing a minimum of $7.5 million financing and up to an
additional $3.5 million if Seelos becomes a public company and up
to $145 million of additional cash milestones. In addition, Ligand
is entitled to net sales royalties ranging from 4% to 10% for the
various programs licensed. Ligand has also entered into a supply
agreement for Captisol. If certain conditions are met, Ligand will
provide a three-year convertible loan facility to Seelos in an
amount up to $500,000. Seelos is responsible for all development
activities under the license.
"Seelos is assembling a great team of industry veterans to focus
on a promising portfolio of mid- and late-stage programs. We are
impressed with their development plans and with the outlook for
building their business," said John Higgins, CEO of Ligand
Pharmaceuticals. "Ligand has a track record of success with
licensing foundational assets at the early stage of company
formation, such as with Retrophin, Sage and Viking. All were
private companies at the time of the Ligand license and all
subsequently became public off lead programs licensed from Ligand.
We are eager to watch Seelos progress."
"We are pleased to announce the collaboration for a
portfolio of CNS products with our partner Ligand Pharmaceuticals,"
said Dr. Raj Mehra, Chairman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
of Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. "This partnership highlights
Seelos' focus on developing late-stage CNS product candidates with
proven mechanism of action. SLS-006, one of the lead
assets acquired in this agreement, is a Phase-3 ready and
clinically-validated partial dopamine agonist that is
well-positioned to advance in development with a goal to provide
relief to an estimated 1.5 million Parkinson's disease patients in
the developed world."
About Seelos Therapeutics, Inc.
Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. is an emerging CNS company with
late-stage clinical assets focused on neurological and psychiatric
disorders, including orphan diseases. One of Seelos’ lead clinical
product candidates, SLS-006 (formerly known as aplindore), is a
Phase 3-ready, first-in-class, small molecule, partial dopamine
agonist that has shown remarkable efficacy in early stage
Parkinson's disease as a monotherapy. SLS-006 has also shown potent
activity as an adjunctive therapy to highly reduced dosages of
L-Dopa in late-stage Parkinson's disease. SLS-006 has been tested
in more than 340 patients and has exhibited impressive
efficacy similar to L-Dopa and an attractive safety profile.
Seelos’ other Phase-3 ready product candidates, SLS-002 and
SLS-004, have also been tested in clinical trials in more than 500
patients each and have shown promising efficacy. Seelos’ mission is
to apply its clinical expertise to develop novel therapeutics to
address unmet medical needs for the benefit of patients with
psychiatric and movement disorders. For more information, please
contact Raj.Mehra@Seelostx.com.
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
Captisol® platform technology is a patent-protected, chemically
modified cyclodextrin with a structure designed to optimize the
solubility and stability of drugs. OmniAb® is a patent-protected
transgenic animal platform used in the discovery of fully human
mono- and bispecific therapeutic antibodies. Ligand has established
multiple alliances, licenses and other business relationships with
the world's leading pharmaceutical companies including Novartis,
Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, Celgene, Gilead, Janssen, Baxter
International and Eli Lilly.
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. Actual
events or results may differ from our expectations. For example,
there can be no assurances that Seelos will successfully develop or
market any products under the licensed programs or that the
financing/going public milestone will be earned. 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: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160922005648/en/
Ligand Pharmaceuticals IncorporatedTodd Pettingill,
858-550-7500investors@ligand.comorLHABruce Voss,
310-691-7100bvoss@lhai.com
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