Ligand Pharmaceuticals to Spin Off Antibody Drug Discovery Business

Ligand Pharmaceuticals plans to split off a separate business dedicated solely to advancing its OmniAb antibody drug discovery platform.

In August, Ligand’s partner Gloria Biosciences won approval in China for zimberelimab — an OmniAb-platform derived anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody developed for treating recurrent or refractory classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This marked the first regulatory approval for a drug created using OmniAb’s technology and the company expects this to be a harbinger of many more approvals in the future.

“We believe more than ever that OmniAb offers one of the industry’s leading antibody discovery platforms and that the business is primed for success for years to come … We have determined the time is right to pursue a strategic plan to create two independent companies,” said John Higgins, Ligand’s CEO.

Financial terms of the planned spin-off weren’t disclosed.