Ligand to Invest Up to $47 Million in AvenCell
The royalty aggregator said the stake will help advance AvenCell’s CRISPR-engineered allogeneic CAR-T programs in AML and B-cell malignancies.
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (LGND) agreed to invest up to $47 million in AvenCell Therapeutics, Inc., a cell-therapy company developing CRISPR-engineered allogeneic CAR-T candidates, in a move the biopharma royalty aggregator said will help advance the target’s pipeline.
The investment is intended to support AVC-201 for relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia and AVC-203 for B-cell malignancies. The release did not specify whether the consideration is cash, equity, or a mix, nor a closing date.
Todd Davis, CEO of Ligand, said AvenCell has built a differentiated cell therapy platform that brings together CRISPR-engineered allogeneic CAR-T technology with a unique switchable CAR approach designed to provide greater control over CAR-T activity. He said the combination of those technologies, together with encouraging clinical data generated to date with AVC-201, highlights the potential of the platform across a broad range of diseases.
Ligand has spent the past year pairing royalty income with smaller strategic stakes in clinical-stage programs. In August 2025 it committed $20 million in cash plus $5 million of equity in Orchestra BioMed’s public offering in exchange for royalties on AVIM therapy and Virtue SAB. In November 2025 Orchestra described a further $15 million Ligand tranche and a $5 million Medtronic-parallel equity purchase, bringing Ligand’s total Orchestra commitment to $40 million.
On April 27, 2026, Ligand and XOMA announced a definitive agreement under which Ligand would acquire XOMA for $39.00 a share in cash, with XOMA stockholders also expected to receive a contingent value right tied to pending litigation. The cash price represented an approximately 14% premium to XOMA’s 30-trading-day volume-weighted average as of April 24, 2026. Ligand intended to fund the deal with cash on hand and borrowings under its revolving credit facility and to retain capacity for its annual $150 million to $250 million royalty-asset investment program. The XOMA close added more than 120 commercial, clinical and preclinical assets, including Roche’s Vabysmo, Servier’s Ojemda, Zevra’s Miplyffa, and 14 late-stage programs.
In the second quarter of 2026 Ligand reported royalty revenue of $48.0 million, up 32% from $36.4 million a year earlier, and total revenues of $63.7 million. The company continued to expect adjusted earnings of approximately $8.50 to $9.50 a share and full-year 2026 royalty revenue of $225 million to $250 million. Davis said Ligand completed a $700 million convertible debt financing at a 0% interest rate during the quarter.
The AvenCell stake sits alongside that royalty-and-royalty-adjacent capital deployment rather than replacing it. The investment will help advance AVC-201 and AVC-203.