John Higgins
Analyst · MLV & Company
Erika, thank you, and welcome everybody to our Fourth Quarter 2011 Conference Call. We had a great 2011. Ligand is on a winning track and I'm pleased to tell you about it. At the highest levels last year, our goals were focused on 3 main areas: Successfully integrating CyDex and expanding the Captisol franchise. Second, reentering new deals to expand, what we call, our shots on goal portfolio and driving our internal pipeline. And finally, to generate profits and cash flow from operations.
This was our clear and consistent messaging throughout the year and we did all of that and candidly, much more. The fourth quarter was particularly strong with revenue and deal making, far exceeding our expectations. What I want to do is give a high-level overview of our business model.
Ligand has a great business model and it's remarkably simple and uncomplicated. We are assembling a portfolio of pharmaceutical assets that are diverse, broad and possess big upside. Our ambition is to drive value by one, acquiring assets with potential for significant upside and two, doing it at the same time, while working to reduce the risks in the business by out-licensing to partners and keeping expenses low.
Now Matt and John are going to go into some more details about the business and recent 2011 highlights. As we move into 2012 and beyond, I want to focus investors on 3 main things. First of all, our portfolio. Secondly, our revenue growth potential. And thirdly, our leverage on expenses and investments.
First, in terms of our portfolio, we call the assets we possess our shots on goal. It's a deep and rich portfolio with every program having the potential to convert into real, tangible value for shareholders. We have over 50 fully funded partner programs, some already generating royalties for Ligand and many others are late stage, that's Phase II and beyond.
What I'd like to highlight this year is that in 2012, we have 12 programs that are Phase III stage programs. They will either start Phase III or pivotal trials, have Phase III data or will have an NDA submitted. That is correct. 12 programs. This is the richest, latest stage portfolio of assets we have ever had. We call it 12 in 2012. You will hear more about this as we get on the road for upcoming conferences. But for now, here are the 12 programs to keep your eyes on. We will hear the FDA verdict on Carfilzomib, we expect NDA submissions for Promacta, HCV and APRELA. We expect Phase III data readouts from Lundbeck's Captisol-enabled Carbamazepine program and we estimate other programs are on track to initiate pivotal or Phase III trials this year including Promacta for ORT[ph], TMC's Captisol-enabled clopidogrel, Rib-X's Delafloxacin, Ligand's melphalan, Merck's Dinaciclib program and undisclosed Captisol programs for Merck, Lilly and Hospira. 12 programs.
Second, I like to focus you on our revenue model. There are 2 things to keep in mind. The revenue growth potential the next few years is significant. If our partners are successful with their late stage partnered assets, we should see product approvals and launches over the next few years. And in many cases, like Promacta, as product sales grows, our royalty tier increases, further increasing our revenue potential.
The second thing to point out is that we believe the quality of our revenue is improving in 2012 as a higher percent of our revenue is coming from recurring and growing royalty streams, as opposed to one-time license or milestone payments. And of course, as revenue grows, profits and cash flows for the business should grow as well.
The third thing I'd like to focus you on is our expense outlook in 2012 and the leverage we have in our business. We expect to operate with the lowest cost structure in our almost entire company's history. This says a lot because not only is it the lowest expense outlook, but we are operating today with the most assets and programs in development. Leverage is often an overused word. But to Ligand, it's the core of our business model. We get enormous leverage on our research investment given the significant amounts invested by our partners on our programs.
For example, this year, if you back out a noncash expense -- at this time, we forecast spending only about $20 million to run our entire business this year. At the same time, we roughly estimate our partners will collectively spend 15x that. 15x or over $300 million this year on all costs associated with our Ligand partnered programs. Again, that is enormous leverage and is proof of how we're taking risks and costs out of the business while still maintaining significant upside through our collaborations and back-end revenue sharing economics.
In summary, as you look at Ligand, focus on 3 things. One, our late stage portfolio, what we call, 12 in 2012. Two, our attractive revenue growth potential. And three, the tremendous leverage we have in our business model.
As we hit our stride in 2012, I'm thrilled to announce that Nishan de Silva has joined our team as Vice President of Corporate Development. He'll actually join full time in a couple of weeks. We just announced him today. Nishan joined us from Warburg Pincus, the successful and highly regarded New York-based private equity firm. Nishan has great credentials and will be an excellent partner to help us drive our strategy and business going forward.
Also, the business has brought on support by some new research analysts. I want to acknowledge the analysts who have initiated coverage on Ligand the past few months, notably, Keith Markey of Griffin Securities and Carol Werther of Summer Street, both initiated recently with 5 [ph] ratings and we're pleased to have their support from these analysts.
It's a great story, it's a great time and now I'd like to invite Matt to fill in some more details on the business. Matt?