Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced that John Higgins has retired as Chief Executive Officer, effective as of December 5, 2022, and that the company's board of directors has named Todd C. Davis as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Davis is currently a member of Ligand's board of directors and is Managing Partner of RoyaltyRx Capital, a special opportunities investment firm he founded in 2018. Mr. Davis has nearly 30 years of experience in biopharmaceutical and life sciences operations and investing.

He has been involved in over $3 billion of healthcare financings including growth equity, public equity turnarounds, structured debt and royalty acquisitions. He has led, structured and closed more than 40 intellectual property licenses, as well as royalty and hybrid royalty-debt transactions. Prior to founding RoyaltyRx Capital, Mr. Davis was a founder and Managing Partner at HealthCare Royalty Partners (formerly Cowen HealthCare Royalty Partners), a global healthcare investment firm.

Previously, he was a partner responsible for biopharmaceutical growth equity investments at Apax Partners. Mr. Davis began his career at Abbott Laboratories, where he held multiple sales and marketing positions of increasing responsibility. Subsequently he led corporate development and held strategic planning and general management responsibilities at Elan Pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Davis is a navy veteran and holds a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. He serves on the boards of Palvella Therapeutics, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, Vaxart, a publicly traded biotechnology company, and ViroCell Biologics Ltd., a privately held biotechnology company.