Ligand Shares Drop Again
Shares in Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. closed at a new low of $4.98 per share Tuesday, but ticked up in after-hours trading.
Also Tuesday, Ligand changed its Nasdaq symbol from LGND to LGNDE. The suffix indicates the company has not met its deadline for filing documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company announced in mid-March that it would be late filing its annual report on Form 10-K.
It has been a busy week for Ligand.
On Monday Ligand announced that two Phase III studies involving its drug Targretin “did not meet endpoints.” The news came out before the market opened. By day’s end the stock had fallen 28.5 percent to $5.88 per share.
The two studies looked at the role Targretin capsules played in conjunction with standard chemotherapy to treat an advanced form of lung cancer.
Targretin has had its successes. In December 1999 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for treating a certain form of lymphoma. European Commission approval came in 2001.
Ligand stock has traded as high as $24.91 during the past year.
Brad Graves
