Ligand (LGND) Signs Deal With Gilead For OmniAb Technology

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) announced that it has entered into a worldwide license agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) , under which the latter will use the OmniRat, OmniMouse and OmniFlic technologies for the discovery of fully human mono- and bispecific antibodies.

This deal will see Ligand receiving annual access payments, milestone payments and royalties for product developed under the collaboration using an OmniAb antibody. Meanwhile, Gilead will be responsible for all costs related to the programs.

We remind investors that OmniAb, an antibody-generating platform, became part of Ligand’s technology portfolio following its Jan 2016 acquisition of OMT, Inc., a privately held company focused on genetic engineering of animals for the generation of human therapeutic antibodies. The acquisition not only diversified Ligand's business by adding OmniAb to its technology portfolio, which consisted of the Captisol, LTP and Selexis technologies, but also created a strong platform to aid the company’s search for new licenses and partnerships.

We note that Ligand has partnerships with several health care companies for its OmniAb platform. Earlier this year, it signed a licensing agreement with Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. (NYSE:EBS) for the same technology. In addition, the company signed agreements with Tizona Therapeutics, Inc. and ABBA Therapeutics AG.

Last month, the company announced that it has received $4 million from the expansion of two OmniAb license agreements with Wuxi. One of the extensions relates to expanding access to the OmniAb platform by adding OmniFlic to the current licensee agreement, which is presently limited to OmniRat. The second extension pertains to Wuxi’s sub-licensing of Chinese rights to an Investigation New Drug (IND)-ready antibody discovered through the OmniAb platform.

Including these payments, revenues for the second quarter of 2016 are anticipated to come in at approximately $19 million.

Ligand is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock, while Gilead carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Innoviva, Inc. (NASDAQ:INVA) is a better-ranked stock in the health care sector, sporting a Zacks Rank #1(Strong Buy).

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