Ligand Settles Rockefeller University Suit

Ligand Pharmaceuticals, the San Diego-based drug developer, said today it has agreed to settle a legal dispute with The Rockefeller University over rights to eltrombopag (Promacta), a drug for a rare bleeding disorder called ITP. Ligand (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LGND]]) will pay $5 million once the settlement is signed, another $2 million over the next two years, plus a royalty on sales that Ligand gets from its partner, GlaxoSmithKline.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.