Company: LGNZZ
Filing Date: 2025-04-22
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000886163-25-000025
Chunk: 37

Company: LIGAND PHARMACEUTICALS INC
Filing Date: 2025-04-22
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 37
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. After review and consultation with Aon, the Human Capital Management and Compensation Committee has determined that Aon is independent and there is no conflict of interest resulting from retaining Aon currently or during the year ended December 31, 2024. In reaching these conclusions, the Human Capital Management and Compensation Committee considered the factors set forth in Exchange Act Rule 10C-1 and Nasdaq listing standards.

#### Role of Comparable Company Information
In October 2023, the Human Capital Management and Compensation Committee worked with Aon to develop a new approach to comparator groups that better reflects the Company’s market for talent. As such, the Company identified the following two comparator groups: (i) middle market private equity firms and (ii) Life Sciences companies.

#### Middle Market Private Equity Firms
In connection with the transformation of the Company’s profile to focus on royalty assets, the Company’s market for talent has evolved to focus on “dealmakers”. Our primary source of talent for these individuals is private equity firms and other

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organizations focused on pharmaceutical and life science royalty investing. In order to attract and retain these uniquely talented individuals, Ligand needs to understand the competitive compensation market for these companies. Accordingly, the Human Capital Management and Compensation Committee worked with Aon to identify middle market private equity firms participating in the McLagan survey with flagship fund sizes between $1.0 billion and $5.0 billion. The middle market private equity firm comparator group was comprised of the following 34 companies:

| 65 Equity Partners            |     | Crestview                  |     | OrbiMed Advisors          |
| Altas                         |     | Deerfield Management       |     | Paine Schwartz Partners   |
| Audax Management Company, LLC |     | Dorilton Capital           |     | Quilvest Capital Partners |
| BDT Capital Partners, LLC     |     | GI Partners                |     | Riverside Company         |
| Berkshire Partners            |     | Great Hill Partners        |     | SK Capital Partners       |
| Bruin Capital                 |     | J.F. Lehman & Company      |     | Stellex Capital Partners  |
| CapitalG                      |     | KSL Capital Partners, LLC  |     | TH Lee                    |
| CC Capital Management, LLC    |     | LLR Partners               |     | The Sterling Group        |
| Centerbridge Partners         |     | Madison Dearborn           |     | Trive Capital             |
| Charlesbank Capital Partners  |     | MidOcean Partners          |     | Warren