Ligand Pharmaceuticals has entered into a worldwide license agreement with Emergent BioSolutions, a global specialty biopharmaceutical company that focuses on emerging health threats, as well as oncology, transplantation, infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders. Under the license, Emergent will use the OmniRat®, OmniMouse® and OmniFlic® technologies to discover fully human mono- and bispecific antibodies. Ligand will be eligible to receive annual access payments, fees on patent filings, potential milestone payments and royalties on future net sales of any antibodies discovered under the license.
“Emergent BioSolutions is a new partner for Ligand and our first for OmniAb since we gained the technology platform through our recent acquisition of OMT,” said John Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand Pharmaceuticals. “This agreement demonstrates Ligand’s success in acquiring novel and important platform technologies and creating new business relationships and economics from them. We will continue to seek high-quality partners working in antibody discovery whose efforts will advance our partnered portfolio and shots-on-goal business model.”