Ligand Buys Metabasis

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Metabasis, the San Diego-based biotech that created a run on the bank among its laid-off employees in May, has was recently purchased by Ligand Pharmaceuticals, another San Diego company.

Ligand was able to purchase Metabasis for just $3.2 million, according to the industry website FierceBiotech. In addition to the purchase price, Ligand agreed to spend $8 million to develop drugs in the Metabasis pipeline.

The deal comes less than two months after Metabasis CEO Mark Erion announced he was jumping ship for a job with pharma giant Merck.

In July we chronicled the Metabasis debacle, which included a mad scramble among employees to cash their last paychecks after senior management told them in May that they were laid off and the company didn't have enough money in the bank to pay them.

-- DAVID WASHBURN

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