Ligand Licenses Four Programs to Seelos Therapeutics
SAN DIEGO--
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.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160922005648/en/
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
Todd Pettingill, 858-550-7500
investors@ligand.com
or
LHA
Bruce
Voss, 310-691-7100
bvoss@lhai.com
Source: Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
Released September 22, 2016