Company: LGNZZ
Filing Date: 2025-04-22
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000886163-25-000025
Chunk: 4

Company: LIGAND PHARMACEUTICALS INC
Filing Date: 2025-04-22
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 4
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 development, regulatory management and commercialization) in order to generate our revenue. We operate two infrastructure-light royalty-generating IP platform technologies. Our Captisol platform technology is a chemically modified cyclodextrin with a structure designed to optimize the solubility and stability of drugs. Our NITRICIL platform technology facilitates “tunable” dosing, permitting an adjustable drug release profile to allow proprietary formulations that target a broad range of indications. We have established multiple alliances, licenses and other business relationships with the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, Jazz, Gilead Sciences and Baxter.

Our revenue consists of three primary elements: royalties from commercialized products, sales of our Captisol material to partners, and contract revenue from license fees and milestones payments.

2024 was a strong year of execution and performance for Ligand. We grew our top-line, expanded our portfolio of commercial stage royalty assets, and added to our pipeline of development-stage royalty opportunities. Over the past two years we have been able to transform Ligand into a profitable, economically diversified, and infrastructure light organization. We remain focused on identifying and investing in highly differentiated royalty assets and operating our royalty-generating platform technologies that we believe will generate significant long-term shareholder value. Our portfolio of major commercial programs delivers predictable and growing royalty revenue and is the foundation of our strong financial performance this year.

Three of our portfolio products with blockbuster sales potential, Verona’s Ohtuvayre, Travere’s Filspari and Merck’s Capvaxive, received FDA approvals in 2024 and are at an early stage in their growth trajectories. Moreover, the important addition of Recordati’s Qarziba to our portfolio last year highlights the expertise of our investment team. Looking ahead to 2025, we anticipate multiple value-creating milestones, including the potential for a strategic transaction and subsequent launch of the recently approved ZELSUVMI™ by mid-2025. We believe we are well positioned and capitalized to execute on our broad pipeline of potential investment opportunities to drive significant future growth and create long-term shareholder value.

During 2024, we grew royalty revenue by 28% and core adjusted EPS 1 by more than 40% to $5.74 per share. We have over $250 million in cash and investments, no debt and access to a $125 million revolving credit facility. We believe we are in a strong financial position to capitalize on our robust business development pipeline.

We have a talented leadership team,