Ligand Expands OmniAb® Antibody Discovery Platform Through the Acquisitions of xCella Biosciences and Taurus Biosciences
September 10 2020 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
The acquired technologies continue to
position Ligand’s OmniAb as a best-in-class platform for antibody
discovery
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND)
announces the acquisition of two privately held companies that
strengthen and complement its OmniAb® technology platform. Ligand
acquired xCella Biosciences, Inc. for $7 million in cash plus
potential earnouts, and acquired Taurus Biosciences LLC for $5
million in cash plus non-transferable contingent value rights
(CVRs). In addition, Ligand will invest $2.5 million in a new
company, Minotaur Therapeutics, which will be led by Taurus
Biosciences’ founder, in exchange for royalties on products from
future programs.
With the addition of these two companies, Ligand has secured a
technology to further enhance its single B cell screening platform
as well as technologies to discover and humanize antibodies from
immunized cows or cow-derived libraries. The acquisitions are
expected to enable Ligand to secure new license agreements with
expanded economics as a result of the addition of tools and
intellectual property that Ligand can now offer to partners. Ligand
evaluated multiple public and private platforms to acquire in order
to continue the expansion of the OmniAb platform and determined
xCella and Taurus represented the best fit and opportunity.
“Bringing the capabilities and intellectual property of these
two companies into Ligand will strengthen our antibody discovery
capabilities, in particular our OmniChicken® platform. We are
committed to keeping OmniAb at the cutting edge of antibody
discovery and development, as exemplified by these deals and our
acquisition of Ab Initio Biotherapeutics last year,” said John
Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand. “During 2020 we have
seen a number of major advancements by partners with
OmniAb-discovered programs. We believe the next few years will
further highlight the significance of the OmniAb platform to major
drug programs and contribute substantially to our financial growth
and performance.”
Ligand’s OmniAb antibody discovery platform has been formed via
five strategic acquisitions of leading antibody discovery tools and
intellectual property over the past several years, creating a
best-in-class platform to serve a growing portfolio of partners,
with:
- Potential for two approvals of OmniAb-derived antibodies in
2021 with expected new royalty streams to Ligand;
- More than 80 OmniAb-derived programs in Ligand’s diverse and
growing portfolio of partnerships;
- Approximately 50 completed or on-going clinical trials with
OmniAb-derived antibodies;
- Leading OmniAb-derived programs in clinical development with
Janssen/J&J (Teclistamab), Genentech (Tiragolumab), Gloria
Pharmaceuticals and Arcus/Gilead (Zimberelimab), CStone
Pharmaceuticals (Sugemalimab), and Immunovant (IMVT-1401).
About xCella Biosciences
xCella is an antibody discovery company based in Menlo Park,
California, and built on scientific research from Stanford
University and MIT. xCella's xPloration™ platform is a proprietary
microcapillary platform that can screen single B cells for
specificity and bioactivity and will increase Ligand’s antibody
discovery throughput and efficiency. This acquisition also provides
Ligand with an existing partnership with Teva Pharmaceuticals. For
more information, please visit www.xcellabio.com.
About Taurus Biosciences
Taurus Biosciences discovers and develops novel antibodies from
immunized cows and cow-inspired libraries. These antibodies feature
some of the longest CDR3s of any species, with unique genetic and
structural diversity that can enable binding to challenging
antigens with application in therapeutics, diagnostics and
research. Taurus Biosciences is based in San Diego and has
intellectual property, derived from major discoveries at Scripps
Research and the Applied Biomedical Science Institute, related to
bovine ultralong CDR3 antibodies. For more information, please
visit www.taurusbiosci.com.
About OmniAb®
OmniAb is a three-species transgenic-animal platform consisting
of five different technologies used for producing mono- and
bispecific human therapeutic antibodies. OmniRat® animals comprise
the industry’s first human monoclonal antibody technology based on
rats. Because they have a complete immune system with a diverse
antibody repertoire, OmniRat animals generate antibodies with human
idiotypes as effectively as wild-type animals make rat antibodies.
OmniMouse® is a transgenic mouse that complements OmniRat and
expands epitope coverage. OmniFlic® is an engineered rat with a
fixed light chain for development of bispecific, fully human
antibodies. OmniChicken® animals comprise the industry’s first
human monoclonal antibody technology based on chickens. The
OmniClic chicken is specifically developed to facilitate the
generation of bispecific antibodies and retains the ability to
generate diverse, high quality affinity matured antibodies. All
five types of OmniAb therapeutic human antibody platform, OmniRat,
OmniFlic, OmniMouse, OmniChicken and OmniClic, use patented
technology, have broad freedom to operate, produce highly
diversified, fully human antibody repertoires optimized in vivo for
immunogenicity, manufacturability, and therapeutic efficacy, and
deliver fully human antibodies with high affinity, specificity,
expression, solubility and stability - Naturally Optimized Human
Antibodies®.
About Ligand Pharmaceuticals
Ligand is a revenue-generating 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. Icagen has
established deep biological expertise focused on ion channels and
transporters and has a strong track record in ion channel drug
discovery from screening to lead optimization. Ligand has
established multiple alliances, licenses and other business
relationships with the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies
including Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi, Janssen, Takeda, Servier,
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. These forward-looking statements
include, without limitation, statements regarding: the improvement
of Ligand’s antibody discovery capabilities and the commercial
advantages that are expected to arise from such improvements.
Actual events or results may differ from Ligand’s expectations due
to risks and uncertainties inherent in Ligand’s business,
including, without limitation: the OmniAb platform faces specific
risks, including the fact that no product using antibodies from the
platform has been approved by the FDA or similar regulatory agency;
unexpected adverse side effects or inadequate therapeutic efficacy
of Ligand’s or Ligand’s partners’ product(s) could delay or prevent
regulatory approval or commercialization; and other risks described
in Ligand’s prior press releases and filings with the SEC. The
failure to meet expectations with respect to any of the foregoing
matters may reduce Ligand's stock price. Ligand disclaims any
intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements
after the date hereof. 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/20200910005303/en/
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Patrick O’Brien
investors@ligand.com (858) 550-7893 Twitter: @Ligand_LGND LHA
Investor Relations Bruce Voss bvoss@lhai.com (310) 691-7100
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