Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) today announced that on September 1, 2023, the Human Capital Management and Compensation Committee of Ligand’s Board of Directors granted non-qualified stock option awards to purchase an aggregate of 50,000 shares of its common stock to one non-executive employee in connection with the employee’s commencement of employment under the Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated 2022 Employee Inducement Plan (the “Inducement Plan”). The stock options were granted as an inducement material to the employee’s commencement of employment and were granted as an employment inducement award 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 individual’s entering into employment with Ligand, pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).

The options have an exercise price of $66.54 per share, which is the closing price of Ligand’s common stock on The Nasdaq Global Select Market on September 1, 2023. The shares subject to the stock options will vest over four years, with 12.5% of the shares vesting six months after the employee’s employment start date and the balance of the shares vesting in 42 equal monthly installments thereafter, subject to the employee’s continued employment on such vesting dates. The options are subject to the terms and conditions of the Inducement Plan and a stock option agreement covering the grant. The stock options have a term of ten years from the grant date.

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 platform technologies or both. Our business model generates 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 mid to late-stage drug development in return for economic rights and licensing our technology platforms to help partners discover and develop medicines. We partner with other pharmaceutical companies to leverage what they do best (late-stage development, regulatory management and commercialization) to generate our revenue. We have two primary platform technologies that are available for outlicense – Captisol and Pelican. Our Captisol platform technology is a chemically modified cyclodextrin with a structure designed to optimize the solubility and stability of drugs. For our Captisol partners, our team supplies the Captisol material needed for their programs. Our Pelican Expression Technology is a robust, validated, cost-effective and scalable platform for recombinant protein production that is especially well-suited for complex, large-scale protein production where traditional systems are not. 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.

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