Benzinga | Dec 21, 2021 04:02PM EST

Ligand And GSK Expand Global Collaboration And License Agreement; Ligand To Receive An Upfront Payment Of $10M And Is Eligible For Development And Regulatory Milestones Up To $67.5M

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) announced today the expansion of an existing collaboration and license agreement between its subsidiary, Icagen, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The expansion will leverage Icagen's ion-channel-based discovery technology and unique expertise in small molecule therapeutics targeting transmembrane proteins. This new agreement builds upon the initial December 2020 agreement to identify and develop inhibitors of a specific genetically-validated molecular target relevant to neurological diseases.

"We are very pleased to expand our collaboration with GSK to include a second neurological target," said Matt Foehr, President and COO of Ligand. "Over the past year this has been a productive relationship combining our technologies and expertise with GSK's history of successfully working with others to access innovation and deliver next-generation transformational medicines."

"We look forward to strengthening our collaboration to identify genetically-validated targets for neurological diseases utilizing Icagen's technology," said John Lepore, Senior Vice President, Head of Research, GSK. "Our expanded collaboration provides a framework to advance drug discovery by maximizing the strengths of our two scientific organizations to develop novel drug candidates efficiently and effectively."

In addition to all payments available under the original 2020 collaboration and license agreement, under the terms of the expanded collaboration and license agreement, Ligand will receive an upfront payment of $10 million and is eligible for development and regulatory milestones up to $67.5 million. Furthermore, should the potential new medicine receive regulatory approval in major markets, the deal provides for commercial milestone payments to Ligand of up to $60 million at first commercial sale, and up to $120 million in sales-related milestone payments. Ligand will receive tiered royalties on net sales of any drug that is commercialized by GSK.

Ligand will be responsible for most preclinical activities up to lead optimization, with Ligand and GSK collaborating to identify candidates for entry into IND-enabling studies. GSK has the exclusive option to license any identified molecules and will be responsible for the further development and commercialization of any drug candidates identified through the collaboration.