Ligand to Present at the BioCentury NewsMakers Conference on October 21

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) announced today that John Higgins, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ligand will present at the BioCentury NewsMakers Conference on Friday, October 21, 2011 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time (7:30 a.m. Pacific). The conference takes place at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City.

A live webcast of the presentation will be available on the Company’s website www.ligand.com. A replay of the presentation will be archived on the site for 30 days.

About Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Ligand is a specialty biotech company based on a business model of developing or acquiring technology and royalty revenue generating assets that are coupled to a lean corporate cost structure. Ligand’s goal is to produce a bottom line that supports a sustainably profitable business. By diversifying the portfolio of technologies and assets across numerous therapeutic areas, drug targets, and industry partners, we offer investors an opportunity to invest in the increasingly complicated and unpredictable pharmaceutical industry. Ligand recognized the important role of the drug reformulation segment in the pharmaceutical industry and added Captisol® to its technology portfolio. Captisol is a powerful formulation technology that has enabled five FDA approved products, including Pfizer’s VFEND® IV and Baxter International’s Nexterone®. In comparison to its peers, we believe Ligand has assembled one of the largest and most diversified asset portfolios in the industry with the potential to generate revenue in the future. These therapies address the unmet medical needs of patients for a broad spectrum of diseases including hepatitis, muscle wasting, Alzheimer's disease, dyslipidemia, diabetes, anemia, COPD, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. Ligand has established multiple alliances with the world's leading pharmaceutical companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb. For more information, please visit www.ligand.com.

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