LGND - Ligand Pharma GSK expand existing license deal

Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) expand an existing collaboration and license agreement. Under this, LGND will receive an upfront payment of $10M and is eligible for development and regulatory milestones up to $67.5M in addition to the payments under the original deal. Furthermore, if the potential new medicine is approved in major markets, the expanded deal provides for commercial milestone payments to LGND of up to $60M at first commercial sale and up to $120M in sales-related milestone payments. The expansion will leverage LGND's unit Icagen’s ion-channel-based discovery technology and expertise in small molecule therapeutics targeting transmembrane proteins. Ligand will receive tiered royalties on net sales of any drug that is commercialized by GSK. LGND will be responsible for preclinical activities up to lead optimization, while GSK has the exclusive option to license any identified molecules and will be responsible for the further development and commercialization.

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Ligand Pharma, GSK expand existing license deal