SAN DIEGO– Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced that it has acquired Tolerance Therapeutics, Inc. (“Tolerance Therapeutics”) for $20 million in cash. Tolerance Therapeutics is a holding company, owned by the inventors of TZIELD (teplizumab-mzwv), that is owed a royalty of less than 1% on worldwide net sales. The transaction will be immediately accretive to Ligand’s royalty revenue.
TZIELD is the first disease-modifying therapy in type 1 diabetes (“T1D”). It is a CD3-directed antibody indicated to delay the onset of Stage 3 T1D in adults and children aged 8 years and older with Stage 2 T1D. TZIELD was granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation in 2019 and was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November 2022. TZIELD is marketed by Sanofi, following its acquisition of Provention Bio, Inc., the owner of TZIELD, in 2023 for $2.9 billion. Sanofi recently announced new data from TZIELD’s PROTECT Phase 3 trial which showed TZIELD’s potential to slow the progression of Stage 3 T1D in newly diagnosed children and adolescents. TZIELD met the study’s primary endpoint, significantly slowing the decline of C-peptide levels, compared to placebo.
“TZIELD is a premier asset and a perfect complement to our growing portfolio of commercial and pipeline programs that address diseases with high unmet medical needs,” said Todd C. Davis, CEO of Ligand. “This product has traveled through a 30+ year journey from the bench to patients in need of new, disease-modifying therapies. We are honored to work with inventors who are dedicated to getting critical treatments to patients.”
David Epstein, President of Tolerance Therapeutics, stated, “The FDA approval of TZIELD and its path to market was a passion of ours and many decades in the making. The high-quality team at Ligand was a pleasure to work with and partner with on this transaction.”
Locust Walk Partners served as exclusive financial advisor to Tolerance Therapeutics.
