Biopharma stalwart Ligand Pharmaceuticals ($LGND) is forking over a handful of in-development treatments and adding a $2.5 million sweetener, hoping new partner Viking Therapeutics can get them through midstage study and generate some value.
Under the deal, Ligand will license out 5 candidates--two Phase II-ready drugs and three preclinical programs--to San Diego startup Viking, investing $2.5 million in the biotech to get it on its way. Ligand has long made its money on royalties and milestone payments from its impressive list of collaborators, which includes Pfizer ($PFE) and GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK). And the Viking tie-up is an effort to set the stage for some future revenue-generating treatments, CEO John Higgins said.
"Ligand has been exploring opportunities to increase the investment in certain of our research programs in order to advance them to major inflection points," Higgins said in a statement. "This is a creative transaction that establishes a bold portfolio of early- and mid-stage assets that have the potential to generate substantial news flow over the next 12 to 24 months and to be the basis for important new drugs in major therapeutic categories."
Leading the slate of outlicensed drugs is VK0612, a Type 2 diabetes candidate that blocks the enzyme FBPase to hamper the body's ability to produce glucose. Early clinical trials demonstrated the drug to be safe and well tolerated, the companies said, and Viking's next step is a Phase IIb study to confirm its promise. Next is VK5211, a Phase II-ready selective androgen receptor modulator with potential to treat cancer-related muscle loss.
Beyond the midstage assets, Viking also gets a slew of preclinical candidates for metabolic disease and anemia, including treatments targeting dyslipidemia, obesity and the en vogue nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.
"Each of the licensed programs has what we believe to be first-in-class or best-in-class characteristics and a differentiated therapeutic profile," Viking CEO Brian Lian said in a statement. "... At all levels, from preclinical through pharmaceutical development, and including our chief medical officer, we have well-aligned development expertise to bring these programs forward."
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