Philadelphia, Houston, 29, September 2026 – Global law firm Hogan Lovells Cadwalader has advised Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: LGND) as it enters into a financing agreement with AvenCell Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage cell therapy company developing controllable, allogeneic CAR-T therapies for patients with cancer, for up to US$47 million. Ligand also committed up to US$6 million in concomitant Series C financing, details of which will be announced separately.
More information on this transaction can be found here.
The Hogan Lovells deal team was led by partners Conor Larkin (M&A, Philadelphia/Houston), Bob Underwood (Practice Area Leader – IP – Americas, Boston), and Steve Nicolai (Securities & Public Company Advisory, Philadelphia), senior associate Gibby Baker (M&A, Philadelphia), and associate Garrett Welch (General Corporate & Finance, Houston).
Additional deal support was provided by counsel Henry Watsky (Northern Virginia), senior associate Michael Atkins (Washington, D.C.), and associate Isabelle Dean (Washington, D.C.) for IP, associate Kayvon Stohler-Paul (Philadelphia) for Securities and Public Company Advisory, partner Matthew Schernecke (New York) for Banking & Loan Finance, and partner Scott Friedman (New York) and senior associate Elizabeth Adams (New York) for Tax, Pensions & Benefits.
Cross-border deal support was also provided by partners Jacky Scanlan-Dyas (APAC Regional Lead for Corporate & Finance, Tokyo), Owen Chan (Regional Managing Partner – APAC, Hong Kong), Thomas Freund (Banking & Loan Finance, Munich), and Heiko Tschauner (RSS, Munich) Wataru Kamoto (M&A, Tokyo), counsel Peter Gierl (Munich, Banking & Loan Finance) and Derrick Lau (Banking & Loan Finance, Hong Kong), projects associate Julia Oelrich (Banking & Loan Finance Munich,) and associates Madlen Riefler (RSS, Munich) and Will Tan (M&A, Tokyo).
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