Ligand Pharmaceuticals has entered into a Captisol supply agreement with Merck for an undisclosed program. Ligand will supply clinical and commercial supplies of Captisol and, if the program is approved for commercialization, expects to deliver multiple metric tons of Captisol annually. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Captisol is a patent protected, chemically modified cyclodextrin with a structure designed to optimize the solubility and stability of drugs. The technology was developed by Ligand’s subsidiary company CyDex Pharmaceuticals and has enabled five FDA-approved products. Ligand reports that there are more than 20 Captisol-enabled products in development.

“We are extremely pleased to enter into a long-term commercial supply agreement for this Captisol-enabled program,” said Matt Foehr, Ligand’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “This collaboration with Merck is a good example of the type of relationships we try to build with our partners. Merck used Captisol to reformulate a drug in their portfolio and performed initial proof of concept under a research use agreement.”