David E. Robinson has resigned from his position as chairman, president, chief executive officer and as a director of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc., effective immediately. After consultation with the company's board of directors, Mr. Robinson resigned to pursue other opportunities. Current director, Henry F. Blissenbach has been named chairman and interim chief executive officer of the company. Dr. Blissenbach has served on the board of directors since May 1995, and recently retired as president and chief executive officer of BioScrip, Inc., a specialty drug distribution company. Prior to that, he was chairman, president and chief executive officer of Chronimed, Inc.

"On behalf of the board, I want to express our gratitude to David for his 15 years of dedicated service to Ligand. David has built what was a small private research-stage company in 1991 into a publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company with five marketed products and revenues approaching $200 million per year, as well as a robust product pipeline. We wish him great success in his new endeavors," said Dr. Blissenbach. "Our continuing focus at the company will be on developing and selling our products and the ongoing process for exploring strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value."