Ligand Pharma and Organon to End Collaboration

Ryan McBride7/30/09

San Diego-based Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) said today that the firm and Dutch drug company NV Organon have opted to end their collaboration and license agreement related to drug research in multiple fields. Organon is ending research funding for the collaboration on Dec. 31, 2009. The agreement was originally struck in early 2007 between Organon—which later that year became, and is now, a unit of drug company Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP)—and Pharmacopeia, which Ligand acquired in December 2008. Ligand reported that the termination of the agreement with Organon does not effect the separate R&D deals it has with Schering-Plough.