ONO PHARMACEUTICAL : Enters Into Worldwide OmniAb® Platform License Agreement With Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (34.6KB)

December 22, 2016

ONO Enters Into Worldwide OmniAb® Platform License Agreement With Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD (Osaka, Japan; President, Representative Director and CEO, Gyo Sagara; "ONO") announces that it has entered into a worldwide license agreement with Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (San Diego, CA, USA; Chief Executive Officer, John Higgins; "Ligand").

Under the license, ONO will be able to use the OmniRat®, OmniMouse® and OmniFlic® platforms to discover fully human mono- and bispecific antibodies. Ligand is eligible to receive annual platform access payments, development milestone payments and royalties for each product incorporating an OmniAb® antibody. ONO will be responsible for all costs related to the programs.

"Following the development of human anti PD-1 monoclonal antibody, OPDIVO®, we will continue to provide hope to sufferers of various diseases" said Hiromu Habashita, Corporate Officer, and Executive Director of Discovery & Research. "The access to OmniAb® platforms is expected to dramatically improve our discovery research in novel antibody therapeutics."

"Gaining access to the OmniAb® platform provides ONO with an industry-leading novel technology for the discovery of antibody therapeutics," said John Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Ligand. "This agreement continues to demonstrate the demand of companies with rich R&D histories to use OmniAb® in their search for novel antibody therapeutics and further expands the global diversity of our OmniAb® partners."

OmniAb® includes three transgenic animal platforms for producing mono- and bispecific human therapeutic antibodies. OmniRat® is the industry's first human monoclonal antibody technology based on rats. It has a complete immune system with a diverse antibody repertoire and generates antibodies with human idiotypes as effectively as wild-type animals make rat antibodies. OmniMouse® is a transgenic mouse that complements OmniRat® and expands epitope coverage. OmniFlic® is an engineered rat with a fixed light chain for development of bispecific, fully human antibodies. The three platforms use patented

technology, have broad freedom to operate and deliver fully human antibodies with high affinity, specificity, expression, solubility and stability.

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) to ultimately generate our revenue. Ligand's Captisol® platform technology is a patent-protected, chemically modified cyclodextrin with a structure designed to optimize the solubility and stability of drugs. OmniAb® is a patent-protected transgenic animal platform used in the discovery of fully human mono-and bispecific therapeutic antibodies. Ligand has established multiple alliances, licenses and other business relationships with the world's leading pharmaceutical companies including Novartis, Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, Celgene, Gilead, Janssen, Baxter International and Eli Lilly.

Follow Ligand on Twitter @Ligand_LGND.

Contact

ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.

Corporate Communications public_relations@ono.co.jp