Ligand Pharmaceuticals Announces Inducement Grants Under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4)

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) today announced that effective February 1, 2024, Ligand’s Board of Directors approved the grant of non-qualified stock option awards to purchase an aggregate of 93,700 shares of its common stock, 32,750 restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and 40,000 performance stock units (“PSUs”) (at the target level) to two non-executive employees. The grant date for the options, the RSUs and the PSUs was February 1, 2024.

The awards were granted under Ligand’s 2022 Employment Inducement Plan, as amended (the “Inducement Plan”) as employment inducement awards pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). The Inducement Plan is used exclusively for the grant of equity awards to individuals who were not previously employees of Ligand, or following a bona fide period of non-employment, as an inducement material to such individuals’ entering into employment with Ligand, pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).

The options have an exercise price of $74.17 per share, which is the closing price of Ligand’s common stock on The Nasdaq Global Market on February 1, 2024. The stock options have a term of ten years and will vest over four years, with 12.5% of the shares vesting six months after the grant date and the balance of the shares vesting in 42 equal monthly installments thereafter, subject to the grantee’s continued service on such vesting dates.

The RSUs will vest over three years on the first three anniversaries of the grant date, subject to continued service through each applicable vesting date. The PSUs will vest based on the achievement of certain company performance objectives. The aggregate number of shares earned under the PSUs may be up to 80,000 in the aggregate if maximum performance levels are achieved.

About Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Ligand is a biopharmaceutical company enabling scientific advancement through supporting the clinical development of high-value medicines. Ligand does this by providing financing, licensing our technologies or both. Our business model seeks to generate value for stockholders by creating a diversified portfolio of biotech and pharmaceutical product revenue streams that are supported by an efficient and low corporate cost structure. Our goal is to offer investors an opportunity to participate in the promise of the biotech industry in a profitable and diversified manner. Our business model is based on funding programs in mid- to late-stage drug development in return for economic rights and licensing our technology to help partners discover and develop medicines. We partner with other pharmaceutical companies to attempt to leverage what they do best (late-stage development, regulatory management and commercialization) in order to generate our revenue. Our Captisol® platform technology is a chemically modified cyclodextrin with a structure designed to optimize the solubility and stability of drugs. We have established multiple alliances, licenses and other business relationships with the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, Jazz, Takeda, Gilead Sciences and Baxter International. For more information, please visit www.ligand.com. Follow Ligand on X; (f/k/a Twitter) @Ligand_LGND.

We use our investor relations website and X as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Investors should monitor our website and our X account, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls and webcasts.