Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 2 of 2

If you look at the research consensus estimates, that are out there for the FILSPARI covering analysts. They take out more in the $500 million to $750 million range for potential sales. And I think Tavo said on our Analyst Day back in December that our five-year model incorporates those $500 million to $700 million type estimates.

Q – Unidentified Analyst: That’s helpful. Thanks a lot for taking the question.

Matt Korenberg: Of course.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Joe Pantginis with H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Q – Joe Pantginis: Hi, everybody. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. So also, I want to add my congratulations for the Agenus deal today. And I think I want to ask my question. Hopefully, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. You had very important cash deployment today that you announced, and I guess the obvious question to me is, to your earlier strategy changes that you’ve made that you’re choosing opportunities, but it’s agnostic with regard to the level of investment that you make. Is that correct now, it just seems to be so.

Todd Davis: Yes. Thanks for the question, Joe. We’re not really agnostic to the level of investment. I mean we view ourselves as a portfolio. We’re trying to build a very risk-mitigated predictable growth portfolio for investors. So like any portfolio manager, we’re managing our exposure in the same way a portfolio manager would. So we essentially tried to stay in the neighborhood of about $40 million per product of exposure. If something significantly less risky, we’ll upsize on it. And conversely, if it’s a high upside a little more risky, we’ll downsize on it. In the case of the [indiscernible] Steel of course, with the number of shots on goal that the $75 million of exposure here we think is quite appropriate for us with the type of kind of portfolio exposure we’re trying to build. Does that answer your question?

Q – Joe Pantginis: It absolutely does. Thanks for that Todd. And then I have two logistical questions. So first on Pelto, I just wanted to check on the future impact on the P&L. Will this will this be analogous to your banking investment will your where your investment is directly on the P&L aspect or in fact to consider?

Todd Davis: Yes. So we are — thanks for the question, Joe. In terms of how we account for the investment in the incubation of Pelcos, it is consistent with the adjustments that we booked for Viking and that we take out the gains on Viking Therapeutics stock gains. We’re also we’re also removing the operating expenses associated with incubating Peltos. And you’ll see that in our GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation and the run rate that you sign in Q4 is pretty much what we’re seeing here this quarter.

Q – Joe Pantginis: Great. Thanks for that. And then the other housekeeping question is with regard to how you’re viewing the current Captisol mix with regard to research you think commercial use and you know how do you view the current inbounds with regard to increase with regard to the asset? Thanks.

Matt Korenberg: Yes, thanks, Joe. Capsule business continued to be very strong. I’ll address your second part first. The inbounds on licensing and interest in the platform continue to be as strong as ever. We obviously saw a significant increase and those inbounds during the COVID pandemic. But we’ve kind of returned to the normal pace of those where we’ve tended to do five or six different new partnerships every year on average over the life of the time we’ve had the program the technology. We’re still continuing to see on that level of interest and hope to do that many deals this year if we if we continue out the rest of the year. In terms of the mix between commercial and clinical use, it continues to be about where it has been for the last couple of quarters.

There’s no nothing material one way or the other. Obviously our larger commercial partners Kyprolis and some of the others continue to grow. And so the commercial use is growing. The clinical use is somewhat dependent on the timing and pacing of the clinical work and some of the larger Phase three trials that have gone over time.

Q – Joe Pantginis: Great. Thanks for all the added color guys.

Operator: We have no further questions at this time. This concludes today’s conference. Thank you for participating and you may now disconnect.

Follow Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:LGND)

Page 2 of 2