Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Matt Hewitt - Craig-Hallum Capital Group - Analyst : And congratulations on the strong quarter guys.Maybe first question is, you still have a very strong balance sheet, and I'm just curious what the pipeline looks like. Do the election results this week have any impact on that on how you think about the market from an investment standpoint? Any update basically on your thoughts regarding adding more shots on goal? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 07, 2024 / 1:30PM, LGND.OQ - Q3 2024 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc Earnings Call

Question: Matt Hewitt - Craig-Hallum Capital Group - Analyst : That that's great. Alright, thank you very much. Congratulations.

Question: Douglas Miehm - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Yeah, thank you. Mike Mike's first question just has to do, you know, delve a little deeper into those 25 potential investments that you are looking at when you think about whether they're well, the size number one, is there a range that you can provide? What's the mix of, let's say royalties versus structured deals versus any acquisitions at this point?

Question: Douglas Miehm - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Great. Okay. And then the follow up question has to do with FILSPARI, which is going to be an important backbone of the company going forward. And I was just wondering if you'd be able to talk a little bit about how you see that competitive environment. I know you touched on (technical difficulty) For the few systems, earnings--

Question: Douglas Miehm - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Yeah, I just wanted to expand a little bit on the competitive environment. You see for FILSPARI, it seems to be quite attractive, but maybe you could provide a bit more context. Thank you.

Question: Douglas Miehm - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Thank you very much. That was helpful. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 07, 2024 / 1:30PM, LGND.OQ - Q3 2024 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc Earnings Call

Question: Joseph Pantginis - H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst : Everybody. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. First couple logistical questions if you don't mind. So, Todd, when you look at, you know, obviously the number of opportunities that you're currently looking at, how do we view that with regard to your ability to look at even more? And it really correlates to my question of, you know, is ligand right sized right now.

Question: Joseph Pantginis - H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst : Inside of the employee base and, you know, the number of people?

Question: Joseph Pantginis - H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst : No, that's very helpful. Thanks. And then just a quick logistical question before I ask my usual question is, you know, what is the status, don't think you'd really be doing it right now? But what's the status of your buyback program?

Question: Joseph Pantginis - H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst : No, that's helpful. And then as I alluded to, my usual question focuses on Captisol. It's typical volatility that you alluded to earlier with regard to the timing of payments and customer orders. So I guess the concept I want to look at is the mix here. Obviously, you have growing revenues from -- I'm sorry, from Captisol used products or Captisol formulated products. So I guess, how should we view the mix right now and view it going forward with regard to, say, research, requests versus, say, early clinical study requests? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 07, 2024 / 1:30PM, LGND.OQ - Q3 2024 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc Earnings Call

Question: Joseph Pantginis - H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst : Great. Thank you very much.

Question: Jiong Shao - Barclays - Analyst : And good morning. This is Shao for Balaji. Just a follow-up question on FILSPARI so as Travere is preparing a supplemental NDA for FSGS, wondering if FSGS is already factored into the 18% CAGR that you highlighted earlier, or only like the current indication, IgAN, is already factored in

Question: Jiong Shao - Barclays - Analyst : Very helpful. Thank.

Question: Trevor Allred - Oppenheimer & Co Inc. - Analyst : Hey, good morning. Can you guys talk about some of the recent changes with the Guinness royalty assets? Have you had any interactions with them? And do you have any current expectations for those royalties going forward?

Question: Trevor Allred - Oppenheimer & Co Inc. - Analyst : Okay, thanks for that. And, and can you also talk about some of the things that give you confidence in a commercial launch for PTOs and first half 25.

Question: John Vandermosten - Zacks Small-Cap Research - Analyst : Great. Thank you. And good morning. So we like to look at M&A to get a sense of what, where things are going and, and I took a quick look at some of the over $1 billion transactions that have taken place and they've been in neuro cancer and dermatology. Do you look at these at all to get a sense of kind of where the next trend will be in terms of good investments and, and you know, where, where products may have a good end market? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 07, 2024 / 1:30PM, LGND.OQ - Q3 2024 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc Earnings Call

Question: John Vandermosten - Zacks Small-Cap Research - Analyst : Okay. Yeah. Thanks to and a couple questions on Captisol, I think that the company had indicated that there might be some life cycle management type of efforts that could take place. And then secondly, what is the competitive environment like for a soil and instability agent out there? And, you know, do you guys control? I, I guess I'm just wondering, you know, how much of the market do you, do you have a handle on there and who are the some of the others that might come up when, when somebody is looking for an agent like that?