EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) today announced that on April 8, 2022, the Human Capital Management and Compensation Committee of Ligand’s Board of Directors granted non-qualified stock option awards to purchase an aggregate of 40,000 shares of its common stock to Kurt Gustafson, who joined OmniAb, Inc. (OmniAb), Ligand’s antibody discovery business, as its CFO, in connection with his commencement of employment. The stock options were granted as inducement material to Mr. Gustafson’s commencement of employment with Ligand and OmniAb and was granted as an employment inducement award pursuant to NASDAQ Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).
The options have an exercise price of $117.06 per share, which is in excess of the closing price of Ligand’s common stock on The Nasdaq Global Select Market on April 8, 2022. The shares subject to the stock options will vest over four years, with 12.5% of the shares vesting six months after Mr. Gustafson’s employment start date and the balance of the shares vesting in 42 equal monthly installments thereafter, subject to Mr. Gustafson’s continued employment with Ligand or OmniAb on such vesting dates. The options are subject to the terms and conditions of 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 focused on developing or acquiring technologies that help pharmaceutical companies discover and develop medicines. Our business model creates value for stockholders by providing 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, diversified and lower-risk business than a typical biotech company. Our business model is based on doing what we do best: drug discovery, early-stage drug development, product reformulation and partnering. We partner with other pharmaceutical companies to leverage what they do best (late-stage development, regulatory management and commercialization) ultimately to generate our revenue. Ligand’s OmniAb® technology platform is a patent-protected transgenic animal platform used in the discovery of fully human monoclonal and bispecific therapeutic antibodies. 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 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. Ligand has established multiple alliances, licenses and other business relationships with the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi, Janssen, Takeda, Gilead Sciences and Baxter International. For more information, please visit www.ligand.com.
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