Earnings Call Transcript - LGND Q1 FY2026

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Ligand First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Melanie Herman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Melanie Herman, Head of Investor Relations

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Ligand's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. With me on the call today are CEO Todd Davis, Chief Financial Officer Tavo Espinosa, Vice President of Portfolio Strategy and Investments Lauren Hay, and Vice President of Investments and Business Development Michael Vigilante. During the call today, we will review the financial results released earlier today and provide commentary on our partner portfolio and business development activity, followed by a question and answer session. Before we get started, I would like to point out that we will be discussing non-GAAP results, which excludes certain items such as stock-based compensation, amortization of intangible assets, amortization or impairment of financial assets, and gains or losses from derivative assets, amongst others. I encourage you to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures, which can be found in today's release available on our website. We believe these adjusted measures provide valuable insight into our core operating performance, both historically and moving forward. Our earnings release and a link to today's webcast can be found in the investor relations section of our website at ligand.com. This call is being recorded and the audio portion will be archived in the investor section of our website. On today's call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding our financial results and other matters related to the company's business. Please refer to this safe harbor statement related to these forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. We remind you that actual events or results may differ materially from those projected or discussed and that all forward-looking statements are based upon current available information ligand assumes no obligation to update these statements to better understand the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ we refer you to the documents that ligand files with the securities and exchange commission or sec that can be found on ligand's website at ligand.com or on the sec's website at sec.gov with that i will now turn the

Todd Davis, CEO

call over to Todd. Thank you, Melanie, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. 2026 is off to an exciting start for Ligand with transformative milestones within our existing portfolio and through the anticipated acquisition of Zoma Royalty Corporation that we announced last week. Though it is still early in 2026, we are showing significant financial performance already with 56% royalty revenue growth over the first quarter of 2025 and 23% EPS growth over the same period in 2025. This is in the context of a broad portfolio, so it is not just serendipity or the result of a single fortunate product approval. This is the result of an intentional strategy change that we executed on in 2022. At that point, we shifted into a pure royalty aggregation model and away from the development of infrastructure-heavy technology platforms. In 2022 to 2023, we divested two platform businesses and went from almost 200 employees down to approximately 40. This took operating expenses from the $90 million range down to about the $40 million range. The profitability of the company and the operating leverage of our model improved dramatically. We subsequently added a very experienced investment deal team and began executing on royalty aggregation through three main deal approaches. Royalty monetizations of existing licenses, project finance, and special situations where we engage operationally and rescue good assets trapped in challenging situations. Since then, we have a deal organization of 18 people executing on these various tactics as we pursue assets that address serious unmet needs for patients. We've gone from seven commercial assets to 15 commercial assets and have closed on 18 deals in the last three years, adding high potential assets into our late-stage clinical pipeline as well. This bodes well for our future growth and for the development of high-value medicines for patients. Pursuing medicines that are impactful for patients is also good for business. Our EPS in that time frame has gone from $2.44 a share in 2022 to our guidance for 2026 of $8.50 to $9.50 per share. For the first quarter of the year, Tavo and Laura will show significant value opportunity in our commercial portfolio, including growth drivers such as Filspari, O2 there, and Carzeba. We also saw exciting progress in Palvela's cutorin rapamycin for MLMs, which achieved positive top-line phase 3 results and has the potential to become the first FDA-approved therapy and first-line standard-of-care treatment for an estimate of more than 30,000 diagnosed patients. In April, we announced our largest deal to date, the acquisition of Zoma Royalty, which will add more than 120 commercial, clinical, and preclinical stage assets into our royalty portfolio. Upon closing, Zoma is expected to be immediately accretive and further accelerate our long-term growth and earnings potential as reflected in our updated financial guidance. Zoma will add seven marketed products and nearly double our portfolio of Phase 2 and Phase 3 assets, which we believe will create significant value for our stockholders, all through a single transaction. Also in April, we were pleased to see Trevere's announcement of the full FDA approval of Filspari in FSGS, making it the first and only approved medicine for FSGS and marketing its expansion beyond IgA nephropathy into a second rare kidney disease. This is an important milestone for people living with FSGS who, for the first time, have an FDA-approved medicine for this rare and devastating condition. Phil Spari is an important program for Ligand and recently became our largest commercial royalty asset. We expect the expansion into FSGS will continue to drive significant growth for Ligand in the coming years. We continue to execute on the strategy that we set place in 2022 and have a strong belief in this business model. The acquisition of Zoma Royalty is expected to add $0.50 a share of adjusted EPS in 2026 and $1.50 in 2027. These financial results are validating evidence of this compounding strategy, and our acquisition of ZOMA royalty further accelerates our ramping growth. ZOMA's significant upside potential also draws from its earlier stage opportunities and longer-dated IP and royalty rights, some of which extend past 2040. Over the last couple of years, Ligand has scaled the business and our portfolio management system in anticipation of absorbing new assets into our portfolio. As a result, we anticipate very significant operational and financial synergies as we integrate the Zola portfolio. We believe this approach will continue to deliver compounding profitable growth for our shareholders. With long-dated royalty cash flow, proprietary financing capabilities, and increased financial strength through this acquisition strengthens our position as a biopharma royalty aggregator. Since we put out our last five-year outlook for royalty receipts in December of 2025, we've had several positive catalysts. In addition to announcing our acquisition of Zoma Royalty, we expect the FDA's approval of Filspari in FSGS and Pelvella's most recently announced positive Phase III data in MLM for its Qtorin rapamycin will continue to add significant growth in value accretion over time. Importantly, we continue to have significant balance sheet strength and cash flows, allowing us to opportunistically execute on additional value creating partnerships as we have historically done the pipeline is robust and we will be disciplined but we are excited about the continued growth and value creation that we can deliver we will share more about the longer term view and update our five-year plan at the investor day that we expect to hold in december of this year and with that i would like to turn it over to tavo for the financial update

Tavo Espinoza, CFO

Thank you, Todd, and good morning, everyone. We're in a very strong position as a business, with multiple drivers contributing to both near-term performance and long-term growth. Importantly, while Fulspari has become a major growth driver for LIGAN, it is only one component of a much broader growth story. The continued launch trajectory in LIGAN and the expected expansion into FSGS represent an important reflection point for our royalty portfolio and long-term cash flow profile. At the same time, we're seeing encouraging early progress from SalesUVME following the Peltho spinout, where we earn a 13% royalty. We're also benefiting from continued contributions across Merck's portfolio, including VaxNubance, CapVaxiv, and O2Bear, which continues to gain traction following its launch. We also continue to benefit from Carzeva, a royalty asset we acquired through our acquisition of a Pyron in 2024. Overlaying all of this is the announced acquisition of Zoma Royalty, which we expect to further diversify and scale the portfolio and serve as a meaningful long-term growth accelerator. Turning to our first quarter results, total revenue was $52 million, up 14% year-over-year, Royalty revenue was $43 million, increasing 56%, and adjusted EPS was $1.63, up 23%. These results reflect strong underlying momentum in the business, driven primarily by continued growth from Filspari, Otuber, and Karziba. We ended the quarter with approximately $780 million in cash and investments, along with $200 million of undrawn capacity under our revolving credit facility, giving us nearly $1 billion of available capital as we move toward closing the Zoma transaction. Looking more closely at royalties, Filspari continues to perform very well, with strong demand trends and growing physician adoption. Trevere has built a field force of over 100 professionals with meaningful overlap between IGAN and FSGS prescribers, which we believe will support a faster launch trajectory in FSGS. O2Vair also delivered strong year-over-year growth. While sales were modestly impacted sequentially by seasonal dynamics and reimbursement timing, trends improved as the quarter progressed, and Merck continues to invest in expanding awareness and adoption. On the expense side, R&D expense was $2.1 million in the quarter, compared to $50.1 million in the prior year period. As a reminder, last year's result included a one-time $44 million accounting charge related to Castle Creek's funding of the Phase III DeFi study. GNA expense was $21 million, compared with $19 million in the prior year, reflecting higher employee-related costs as we continue to scale our business development function. Importantly, we continue to operate with a highly efficient cost structure, and as the business scales, we expect to see continued operating leverage. Non-operating expense was $41.6 million compared to $14 million in the prior year period, primarily driven by changes in the fair value of our investment in PELTHOS and other equity holdings. These items are excluded from adjusted net income and do not impact the underlying performance of the business. From an earnings perspective, GAAP diluted earnings per share was a loss of $0.67 in the first quarter compared to a loss of $2.21 in the prior year period. The 2026 loss was primarily driven by fair value adjustments on our equity holdings, while the prior year loss largely reflects a one-time $44 million accounting charge related to our investment in Castle Creek. On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share increased to $1.63, up 23% year-over-year, reflecting strong operating leverage and higher royalty contributions. Turning now to guidance, consistent with the revised guidance we provided in connection with the ZOMA announcement and assuming the acquisition closes in the third quarter, our 2026 total revenue outlook is $270 million to $310 million. dollars. Our royalty revenue outlook is $225 million to $250 million, and our adjusted EPS outlook is $8.50 to $9.50. Looking ahead to 2027, we expect approximately $1.50 per share of incremental adjusted EPS from a full-year contribution of the ZOMA portfolio. We also expect combined operating cash flow of approximately $300 million, which reflects the benefit of the tax attributes acquired in the ZOMA transaction, including net operating losses and Section 174 R&D tax credits, and supports our capital deployment strategy of investing $150 million to $250 million annually in new royalty opportunities. We believe this creates a highly attractive model, one where strong, tax-efficient cash generation funds continued portfolio expansion, driving further growth over time. Finally, I'd like to touch on the CVR associated with the ZOMA acquisition. The CVR relates to potential proceeds from ZOMA's litigation with Janssen. The litigation assets will remain in a post-reorganization ZOMA LLC, which will distribute 75% of any net proceeds to former ZOMA shareholders through the CVR, while Ligand will retain rights to the remaining 25%. Importantly, Ligand has no obligation to fund the litigation. As a result, there is no P&L impact associated with the case, only potential upside. With that, I'll turn it over to Lauren for a portfolio update.

Lauren Hay, Analyst — Other

Thank you, Chavo, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to focus today on two very important recent positive events in our portfolio. The first is the announcement of extremely successful Phase III saliva trial results for Palvela's cutorin rapamycin in microcystic lymphatic malformations. Cutorin-Rapamycin demonstrated a highly statistically significant outcome on the primary endpoint and all secondary endpoints. On the primary endpoint, cutorin-Rapamycin demonstrated a positive 2.13-point improvement on the MLM investigator global assessment scale. This is clinically transformative for patients and even more compelling considering that there are no FDA-approved treatments for this serious, rare dermatological condition. For context, Palvela had guided to a change on the MLM IGA of positive 1 as being a decisive win with an upside case of positive 1.5 points. Palvela plans to submit an NDA in the second half of this year and is accelerating U.S. launch readiness efforts. As a reminder, Ketorin-Rapamycin has been granted breakthrough therapy, orphan drug, and fast-track designations from the FDA for the treatment of MLM. Palvella is also developing cutorin rapamycin for the treatment of cutaneous venous malformations. In December, Palvella announced positive top-line results from its Phase II TOEVA study. Palvella recently completed a very successful CVM breakthrough therapy designation meeting with the FDA and plans to submit a breakthrough application shortly. Across the two lead indications, there are estimated to be more than 100,000 patients diagnosed with either MLM or CVM. Based on payer research and orphan analog launches, Palvela projects an annual per patient price of between $100,000 and $200,000. At peak, this positions the U.S. commercial opportunity for cutoring rapamycin to reach an estimated $1 to $3 billion in U.S. annual sales across the initial two indications. This could translate into a potential $100 to $300 million peak annual royalty revenue to ligand if achieved. Moving on to the second major catalyst in our portfolio this year, in April, the FDA granted full approval of Filspari for the treatment of FSGS in patients without nephrotic syndrome. In our view, the approval was highly positive, given the broad label encompassing patients with primary, secondary, and genetic SGS. From a commercial perspective, Trevere estimates there are over 30,000 patients in the U.S. with FSGS who are eligible for treatment with Filspari. With no approved therapeutic alternatives and serious unmet medical need, we are optimistic about the commercial potential in FSGS. Trevere has an estimated nephrology team of over 100 field professionals with high overlap between IGAN and FSGS, and payer coverage is already established in IGAN, so we expect a rapid and successful launch. Additionally, Filspari continues to perform well commercially in IGAN, and Filspari now represents the largest royalty in our portfolio. Trevere has seen strong sales growth in IGAN, driven by the recent REMS modification, as well as updated Cadego guidelines, even as new therapies have entered the market. Physician confidence continues to build as real-world experience reinforces the long-term clinical data and its role as a foundational non-immunosuppressive therapy. Across IGAN and FSGS, we believe Filspari is well positioned for meaningful and accelerating revenue growth, and Trevere has guided to a $3 billion peak opportunity across both indications, which would translate into a $270 million annual royalty to LIGAN if achieved. Taking a step back, we have 12 major royalty revenue drivers across our existing portfolio. As you can see by the boxes highlighted in green, five of these 12 products have been approved or acquired since 2022, as we have implemented a strategic focus on generating predictable, compounding royalty revenue growth for our shareholders. Moving to the next slide, we have eight key pipeline programs we are currently focused on, six of which represent new investment activity since 2022. The growth in our commercial and clinical stage portfolio has been strategic, intentional, and methodical, as we are focused on adding high-value assets with the potential to address areas of high unmet medical needs, such as oncology, rare disease, and hypertension. Turning to our recently announced acquisition of Zoma Royalty, which is expected to close in the third quarter, I'd like to discuss Zoma's royalty portfolio. ZOMA's assets will enhance Ligon's portfolio in three distinct stages. First, ZOMA's seven commercial programs, including three key products, Babismo, Ogenda, and Maplifa, provide near-term predictable revenue, as well as significant growth potential through geographic and indication expansion. ZOMA's 14 late-stage clinical programs represent the next wave of growth opportunities and are anticipated to further diversify the portfolio. As these programs reach approval and launch, they transition into royalty-generating assets and further expand the predictable, compounding revenue base. Beyond that, ZOMA has an extremely diverse array of over 100 earlier-stage programs that provide the foundation for long-term royalty portfolio longevity. Not only do these assets have the potential to generate significant long-term royalty revenue, they also have the potential to generate near-term development and regulatory milestone revenue. When we look at the full year, we've already seen several positive events in 2026. In addition to Palvella's positive Phase III results in MLM, Palvella also announced the initiation of a Phase II trial in clinically significant angiokeratomas. Turning to Filspari, following its FDA approval, the first FSGS patients were treated within just one week, which is an encouraging indicator as we monitor the early stages of the launch. Looking ahead to additional potential catalysts expected this year across the Ligand portfolio, we anticipate continued geographic expansion of Filspari as Chigai advances towards regulatory submission in IGAN in Japan, and Nuance awaits regulatory decisions for O2-Vare in China. On the clinical front, Orchester Biomed and Leona Bio expect a complete enrollment of their pivotal trials this year, both representing important late-stage assets in Ligand's portfolio. Turning to the Zoma royalty portfolio, one of the key pipeline partner programs, Felixabat, in development by Miram Pharmaceuticals for both primary sclerosing cholangitis and primary biliary cholangitis, announced positive Phase IIb data in patients with PSC earlier this week. Miram has a pre-NDA meeting scheduled with the FDA this summer, with a planned NDA submission in the second half of this year. We're excited to see this important milestone for the PSE community, which currently has no approved therapies. Additionally, marketing decisions are expected in Japan for Ojemda and Europe for Mplifa in the second half of this year, which will be growth drivers for these commercial products. With the vast size of the anticipated combined portfolio, these are just a few of the many important catalysts we expect in the coming months. In closing, with the acquisition of Zoma, we have never felt more confident about the potential of our portfolio, both in the short term and the long term. With that, I will turn the call back over to Todd for his closing remarks.

Todd Davis, CEO

Thank you, Lauren. We now have a deep and talented team at Ligand, and we are incredibly proud of our dealmakers for driving our substantial growth. The acquisition of Zoma Royalty represents an exciting opportunity to significantly grow our portfolio and accelerate our long-term growth profile with the addition of a highly complementary business. Additionally, we are pleased with the progress of our incredible partners and late-stage development pipeline, specifically the strong trial results of Palvelis Phase III MLM trial and the recent FDA approval of Filspari in FSGS. We have strong conviction around these important programs and are encouraged to see both the clinical development progress of cutorin rapamycin in MLM and the expansion of Filspari into a second rare kidney disease while we are driving growth for our shareholders we also do not lose sight of the broader goal of creating greater access to life-saving treatments and improving the lives of patients we are privileged to be in a business where we can do well by doing good thank you everyone for joining us for today's earnings call i will now pass it back to the operator and open it up for questions thank you we will now begin the question and answer session

Operator

please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up if you would like to ask a question please press star 1 to raise your hand to withdraw your question press star 1 again we ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question and if you are muted locally please remember to unmute your device please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster your first question comes from the line of Matthew Hewitt from Craig Hallam Capital Group please go ahead

Matt Hewitt, Analyst — Craig-Hallum Capital Group

good morning and thanks for providing the update and taking the questions maybe first up could you explain how you know how the zoma deal came to pass and why it makes sense now

Todd Davis, CEO

uh sure man thanks for the question uh for this question i'll hand it over to michael vigilante who is our d a deal lead on this michael can you hear me yeah go ahead hi great yeah good morning

Michael Vigilante, Analyst — Other

everybody yeah thank you thanks for the question matt so yeah you know why can we've had a long standing relationship with that with the zoma team a lot of respect for for owen and what they've accomplished we believe their business has reached an inflection point the parties engaged fultimately in december ligand spent considerable time diligently zoma's portfolio business at that time discussions continued in 2026 where where we reached alignment on terms and structure in April. The transaction provides Zoma shareholders with liquidity and attractive returns since their pivot to a royalty aggregator model in 2017. For Ligand, the Zoma deal provides meaningful synergies via broadening our portfolio across commercial, all stages of development, accelerates our growth and adds immediate EPS accretion, as well as long-term durable accretion.

Matt Hewitt, Analyst — Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Got it. Thank you. And then maybe as a follow-up, Todd, I think you noted in your prepared remarks that you've got a robust pipeline of targets. And I'm curious, are there others in that pipeline similar to ZOMA, meaning, you know, like a portfolio of assets, or do you expect to revert back to more of the individual drug investments? Thank you. Sure. Good question,

Todd Davis, CEO

Matt. The majority of our pipeline are single or double assets. I think the ZOMA portfolio is unique in its breadth. There are not many like this in the market that we know of. And so it is a fairly unique transaction. There are other special opportunities that would be larger deals that involve multiple assets, but not quite with this level of breadth. Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Annabelle Samimi from Stiffle. Please go ahead.

Jack, Analyst — Stifel

Hi, this is Jack on for Annabelle. Thanks for taking our questions and congrats on the quarter. So to what extent does the earlier stage Zillow portfolio impact your commitment to conducting those four to five deal targets per year? It seems like you can do a lot of shopping there already for promising assets. So do you really see yourself needing to go external for additional

Todd Davis, CEO

deals for the remainder of the year? That's a great question. We don't need to do additional deals to sustain, you know, over 20% growth for the next five years. We have an immense amount of growth embedded in the current portfolio, but there's so much opportunity in kind of the late stage private to mid-cap project finance arena that we've been scaling the team to execute on that. And so we expect the addition of new deals and new assets in the portfolio to continue to compound the growth and drive it even higher, which is good for our investors. So we will

Operator

continue to do that. Great. Thanks. Your next question comes from the line of Egal Notomovic

Juwan Kim, Analyst — Citigroup

from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Hi, this is Juwan Kim on for Egal. Thanks so much for taking our question. Maybe just two quick ones from us. Firstly, we noticed that you had reiterated guidance for the year following Traver's record high new PFF for Phil Spari. Could you elaborate on the key performance indicators or specific achievements you would be looking for that might lead to an upward revision of Phil Spari's projected contribution for the remainder of the year?

Todd Davis, CEO

Yeah, Tavo, go ahead.

Speaker 14

Yeah, you know, we had Phil Spari for FSGS on a risk-adjusted basis included in our model coming into the year. And we talked about that at Investor Day. And so now that obviously it's approved, it's de-risked. But it did, as you'll recall, it did move over about a quarter. It was originally scheduled for approval in early January. It subsequently got approved in in April. So, you know, that's that's that's a quarter of the year that kind of offsets the de-risking. So it's it's it's it's incremental at best here in 2026, where we'll see a significantly more impactful impact from FSGS sales as we get as we get out into 2028 and and beyond. but no no no no impact uh on the 50 the 50 cent increase in guidance is purely uh related to the

Juwan Kim, Analyst — Citigroup

uh the the zoma acquisition got it thanks so much and if i could just throw a second one here uh we noticed the ak filing on in april regarding the tier beta program termination of viking can you help us understand the strategic thinking here specifically if the uh 2809 and 0214 assets they're reclaimed would you seek to re-partner these out and just to help frame the potential impact how are these assets being carried on the books at all from a royalty contribution standpoint

Todd Davis, CEO

yeah thanks for thanks for the question i'll let tavo answer the how it's being carried question but you know our objective with 2809 is uh to move it forward in development so that patients can benefit from it. We think it's very high potential. We think it's demonstrated by the current MASH product that's in the market. There's strong demand and a need for products like 2809 and that it has very high potential to be a differentiated product in that market, which is quite large. So our objective is to get it moving forward in development, really. And that's the reason for that. And with regard to how it's being carried, Thabo?

Speaker 14

Yeah, there's nothing. We don't carry anything on the balance sheet. We did have intangible assets on the books related to these at some point. Those are fully amortized. And financial impact as a result of this, maybe just some minor incremental legal expenses, but nothing that will impact what we've already guided. Great. Thanks so much. Appreciate the call.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jason Sinansky from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Jackie, Analyst — Bank of America

Hi, this is Jackie on for Jason. Congrats on the quarter and thanks for taking your question. Appreciating that Seafield is a smaller part of the portfolio, but with the recent label expansion to age one from age eight for the delaying progression to stage three type one diabetes, how does this change your view on the size of the opportunity? Should we expect a meaningful shift in peak sales potential? And how might that translate into royalties for Ligin?

Todd Davis, CEO

Lauren, you want to take that?

Lauren Hay, Analyst — Other

Yeah, sure. So we were certainly encouraged to see that label expansion. I think it's great for patients and their families that are on the younger end of the spectrum in terms of the type 1 diabetes onset. set. I'd say that it'd probably be an incremental addition to what we're seeing in terms of the T's yield sales. This is really a market where we're having to identify patients before they become symptomatic. So it's quite a bit of investment that Sanofi is undertaking to go out and screen family members who are newly diagnosed and then find patients who'd be eligible in that kind of stage two of the disease. So I'd say it'd be incremental, and we're certainly encouraged to see access available for some of the youngest patients who would be now eligible for treatment. So thanks for the question. Great.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line from Sahil Dhingray from RBC. Please go ahead.

Sahil Fadakmi, Analyst — RBC

Hi, this is Sahil Fadakmi. Thank you so much for taking a question. My first question is on the capital performance in the quarter, which was down year over year. What gives you confidence in achieving the full year capital guidance? And also, how should we think about the pacing of contract revenue for the remainder of the year?

Todd Davis, CEO

Tabo, you want to take the capital question? And was the second part pacing on deals? Go ahead on both of those, Tabo.

Speaker 14

Hi, Sahil. Thanks for the question. Yeah, on the Captisol revenue line, we do have visibility to orders into the early part of 2027. So we're confident we'll be able to meet our guidance range of $35 million to $40 million. It tends to be, you know, inconsistent. It's not linear quarter to quarter, largely due to the kind of the nature of the orders, the size of the orders that we get from some of our larger customers. But you can expect the amount to normalize here over the next three quarters. And in terms of contract revenue, that's another one that's lumpy. it's, you know, the nature of that line that's, you know, obviously dependent on regulatory and commercial milestones reached by our partners. We have over 18 different milestone opportunities. Obviously, not all of those will come in at various sizes. But again, we feel very comfortable that we'll be able to meet our guidance range. Great. Thanks, Abad. And then my next question

Sahil Fadakmi, Analyst — RBC

is related to the zoma acquisition uh can you comment on the ease of challenge of integrating zoma post-closing and how much in synergies are you expecting from that transaction and also does integrating zoma impact your deal activity in the near term either in terms of deal size capacity or timelines thank you sure yeah i think on the uh with regard to synergies

Todd Davis, CEO

on the zoma transaction they're extremely high approaching 100 now we are scaling our business so we probably will pick off some of their team which is talented if they're interested obviously and um and there's there's a lease obligation but the synergy is potentially approaching something you know close to 100 so that's this is this business is worth quite a bit uh quite a bit to us, plus the tax benefits are immediately beneficial to us. So we've kind of set up the business to absorb these types of partnerships, contractual passive partnerships, which is a very highly leverageable acquisition for us. So the operating leverage around this is very beneficial. And could you just repeat, Sahil, the second part of your question? Yeah, it was related to the

Sahil Fadakmi, Analyst — RBC

other transactions. So does integrating ZOMA impact your deal activity in the near term as it relates to size of a deal or timeline? Yeah. Yeah. So we'll have access to a couple

Todd Davis, CEO

hundred million dollars post-transaction here. Our deal pace has been 150 to 250 million a year. So, and we're generating now, we're approaching, we're not quite there, but we're approaching $300 million a year in cash flow generation. So we have, at this pace, essentially reached kind of a self-funding status almost. So there's no need to do an immediate financing or anything like that. Our balance sheet will be in good shape. I will say that the opportunity in this late-stage private kind of mid-cap space for project financing, co-development funding, and things like that is really very significant for non-dilutive capital. And so we have continued to scale our team and our execution capabilities are accelerating. So our pace could go up a little bit. But again, from a balance sheet and cash generation perspective, we're in a strong position to

Sahil Fadakmi, Analyst — RBC

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Joe Pantogenes from HC Wainwright & Co. Please go ahead.

Joe Pantogenes, Analyst — HC Wainwright & Co.

Hey, everybody. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. So I'm going to go a little bit slightly into the weeds on Zoma, and I'm also curious whether this could apply to your broader portfolio as well at Ligand. So Zoma had acquired a few or multiple companies over the last 18 months or so with the hope of outlicensing those assets. I was curious if you will be taking on that responsibility, and also is that a potential for Ligand's current assets where, you know, beyond attrition because of, say, negative news, you have any assets in the future you might want to potentially offload?

Todd Davis, CEO

Yeah. So I think that we're in the business of identifying really high value clinical opportunities that either require funding or require partnering. And so that's why we have kind of a three pronged approach is sometimes it needs additional management or needs a new home. Sometimes it needs capital and we get involved in all of the above. And so that's why we've kind of scaled our portfolio management capability, because it's not just about doing new deals for us. It's about making sure that we farm the existing portfolio that we own and making it as highly productive as possible. So we're constantly prioritizing and reprioritizing our own set of assets. And if they stall out or if they need new partnering, we definitely will be engaged in out licensing, finding new homes, partnering, helping to back potentially those new companies or existing companies that we help finance to move valuable assets forward. So that's really the business that we're in. It's far more than just, you know, acquiring or monetizing passive royalties. We get involved with the portfolio management. And Lauren Hay is heading that effort up, who's on the phone. So I'll just ask her to weigh in with any additional comments.

Lauren Hay, Analyst — Other

Yeah, so thanks for the question, Joe. I think Todd summarized things really well. You know, we have a sizable existing portfolio at Ligand that we're always looking for opportunities to potentially repartner assets if the situation presents itself. You know, we did have an example of that late last year with lasafoxifene and getting that over to Ethera, which is now Leona Bio. And we're really encouraged by the progress that that team is making on completing the phase three trial there where we expect a readout next year. And so with the expected acquisition of the ZOMA portfolio, that'll be certainly, you know, an opportunity for us to look across their existing programs in all stages of development and look for similar opportunities. So we're well set up to do that and adding some resources to that effort. And we're excited about the opportunities in the short term and long term there.

Joe Pantogenes, Analyst — HC Wainwright & Co.

Thanks for the question. Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Your final question comes from the line of John Vandermosten from Zacks. Please go ahead.

John Vandermosten, Analyst — Zacks

Thank you. I wanted to start out with a question on the milestones. And if you look at ZOMA's revenues last year, there was a good chunk from things like that. And I'm wondering if you anticipate any milestones from ZOMA in the second half of the year, 2026.

Todd Davis, CEO

John, go ahead.

Speaker 14

Okay, John. Thanks for the question. Yes, Zoma, with the Zoma portfolio, along with that comes a number of milestones, some of which we do have the opportunity to realize here in the second half of 2026, obviously, assuming the acquisition happens as expected in the third quarter. But yeah, we do have an opportunity to realize some of those and significantly more as we get into the 27, 28, beyond years.

John Vandermosten, Analyst — Zacks

Okay. And just taking a look at the R&D assets and the NOLs, you did mention that I guess there's some benefit from that expected in 2027. How quickly would we be able to use them? And I guess what's the amount that you'd be able to use? Are you going to lose any due to M&A restrictions or anything like that?

Speaker 14

Yeah, good question on that one, John. It is significant. We haven't disclosed the quantum. We're going to let the deal close and make sure we get through our entire financial diligence before we disclose the amount. You can get a sense if you want by looking at their financial statements, their annual report in particular. The NOLs that they've accumulated over time will will be limited. However, the Section 174 R&D tax credits will come over 100% and we will be able to make use of them immediately. So it's going to put us in a very tax-efficient position.

John Vandermosten, Analyst — Zacks

Great. Thanks, Thabo. That's all for me.

Operator

At this time, there are no further questions. This concludes today's call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect.

Todd Davis, CEO

Thank you.