Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Doug Miehm - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Thanks very much. My question has to do with the -- you touched on this, the current environment for the space and one might also -- almost say that you have an embarrassment of riches here in terms of identifying and potentially bringing in royalties to project financing or special situations. Would you say that you're seeing even more special situations these days? And if so, what the implications for the company may be? Thank you.

Question: Doug Miehm - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Excellent, thank you.

Question: Matt Hewitt - Craig Hallum - Analyst : Good morning and congratulations on the strong start to the year. Maybe first up, there's news that's broken here over the last 24 hours. I realize it's pretty recent. But with the potential for most favoured nation's status for drug pricing, it sounds like it would just be -- this is uncertain Medicaid or Medicare. But are you -- what do you think that that would do to how your partners kind of look at where they launch, when they launch, those types of things? What would be the potential impact from that, if any? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 08, 2025 / 12:30PM, LGND.OQ - Q1 2025 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc Earnings Call

Question: Matt Hewitt - Craig Hallum - Analyst : That's helpful. And then maybe as a follow-up question, given -- and you noted this at a couple different times in the prepared remarks even, but given some of the disruption that we're seeing and the challenges that -- potential partners are having on the funding side. As you look at your investment opportunities, has the sizing changed at all or are you still kind of looking kind of as -- those bite size $10 million, $20 million type investments and spreading your strong balance sheet over multiple shots on goal or would you consider something larger? Thank you.

Question: Matt Hewitt - Craig Hallum - Analyst : That's very helpful, thank you.

Question: Trevor Allred - Oppenheimer - Analyst : Hey, good morning guys. Just had a couple quick questions. Is there anything you can say on Qarziba expectations? Any of the activities Recordati is doing there to expand use? And can you also talk to where these blossom continue? Some patients are most primarily seen, is it paediatric derms or is it paediatricians or what's the, I guess, referral patterns that might happen there? Thanks.

Question: Trevor Allred - Oppenheimer - Analyst : Great. Thanks.

Question: Annabel Samimy - Stifel - Analyst : My question -- congratulations on a good quarter. Just following on the biopharma environment and the number of opportunities that you have. I appreciate your desire to remain relatively diversified. Any thoughts as to the investment capacity you're willing to put out every year? I think you talked about 150 to 200 in total capital allocations for the year. Any thought to increasing that and taking advantage of the environment? So that's the first question and the second is regarding NITRICIL. Now that you have Pelthos often Zelsuvmi about to launch, can you dive into how you might leverage the NITRICIL platform to new products or licensing and what are your next plans for that technology? Thanks.

Question: Annabel Samimy - Stifel - Analyst : Great. Thank you.

Question: John Vandermosten - Zacks - Analyst : Great. Thank you. And another question on Pelthos. Is the initial launch time for Zelsuvmi dependent on when the deal is able to close the channel or is it independent of that? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 08, 2025 / 12:30PM, LGND.OQ - Q1 2025 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc Earnings Call

Question: John Vandermosten - Zacks - Analyst : Okay. And then looking at Filspari, you had mentioned that it had shifted from conditional marketing approval to standard of marketing approval in Europe. And does that change any reimbursement or access for the product?

Question: John Vandermosten - Zacks - Analyst : Okay. And last one for Tavo on revenue trends for the year. Should we expect to see something similar to last year where a little bit lower in the first quarter and then a jump in the second quarter and kind of slowly trend up. And I know contract revenue played somewhat of a role there, but ignoring that line, how do we think it's going to, I guess that cadence, so to speak, of revenues for this year -- for the rest of this year?

Question: John Vandermosten - Zacks - Analyst : Great. Thank you.