22 December 2021 - - US-based Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: LGND) has expanded an existing collaboration and license agreement between its subsidiary, Icagen, and British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), the company said.

The expansion will leverage Icagen's ion-channel-based discovery technology and unique expertise in small molecule therapeutics targeting transmembrane proteins.

This new agreement builds upon the initial December 2020 agreement to identify and develop inhibitors of a specific genetically-validated molecular target relevant to neurological diseases.

In addition to all payments available under the original 2020 collaboration and license agreement, under the terms of the expanded collaboration and license agreement, Ligand will receive an upfront payment of USD 10m and is eligible for development and regulatory milestones up to USD 67.5m.

Furthermore, should the potential new medicine receive regulatory approval in major markets, the deal provides for commercial milestone payments to Ligand of up to USD 60m at first commercial sale, and up to USD 120m in sales-related milestone payments.

Ligand will receive tiered royalties on net sales of any drug that is commercialized by GSK.

Ligand will be responsible for most preclinical activities up to lead optimization, with Ligand and GSK collaborating to identify candidates for entry into IND-enabling studies.

GSK has the exclusive option to license any identified molecules and will be responsible for the further development and commercialization of any drug candidates identified through the collaboration.

The Icagen technology is focused primarily on ion channel and transporter novel drug discovery.

Ion channels and transporters are key components in a wide variety of biological processes that involve rapid changes in cells and have broad therapeutic applicability including oncology, metabolic disease, pain, neurological diseases, infectious diseases and others.

The Icagen technology leverages proprietary expertise in the combination of biological assays, medicinal chemistry, and in silico and computational chemistry applications to enable the discovery of ion channel targeting therapeutics.

Partners in the pharmaceutical industry leverage Icagen's platform to develop first-in-class therapies for patients in need, typically under collaborative arrangements through the time of clinical candidate selection, with partners responsible for subsequent clinical development and commercialization.

Ligand is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing or acquiring technologies that help pharmaceutical companies discover and develop medicines.

The Captisol platform technology is a patent-protected, chemically modified cyclodextrin with a structure designed to optimize the solubility and stability of drugs.

Ligand's Pelican Expression Technology is a scalable platform for recombinant protein production that is especially well-suited for complex, large-scale protein production.

Ab Initio technology and services for the design and preparation of customized antigens enable the successful discovery of therapeutic antibodies against difficult-to-access cellular targets.