Ligand’s Pelthos Merges with Channel Therapeutics

April 17, 2025

DENVER, Colo., Apr 17, 2025 (247marketnews.com)- Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) and Channel Therapeutics (NYSE:CHRO) signed a definitive merger agreement to fuse Ligand’s Pelthos Therapeutics subsidiaries with Channel, fueled by a $50 million equity raise led by Murchinson. The move is set to close in summer 2025 and will trade as Pelthos Therapeutics (ticker: PTHS), with a focus on launching ZELSUVMI, the FDA-approved, at-home molluscum treatment.

ZELSUVMI (berdazimer topical gel, 10.3%), greenlit by the FDA in 2024, is the first and only prescription therapy for molluscum contagiosum that patients, parents, and caregivers can apply at home. Targeting a 16.7 million-strong U.S. patient pool—mostly kids, immunocompromised adults, and sexually active adults—this novel drug tackles a poxvirus causing itchy, stigmatizing skin bumps that linger for months or years.

Scott Plesha, CEO of Pelthos, commented, “There is a significant unmet medical need for an easy-to-use, safe, and efficacious treatment option for molluscum that can be applied by patients, parents, or caregivers at home via prescription. We believe ZELSUVMI will complement pediatric and adult dermatologists’, general pediatricians’, and all other health care providers’ current efforts to treat molluscum while reducing the need for repeated invasive in-office procedures and the associated wait times needed to treat this highly infectious disease. Having commercialized both dermatology and pain management products, I am excited to lead the combined company into this next growth phase.”

Eyeing the estimated $5 billion molluscum market, Ligand’s 13% royalty on global ZELSUVMI sales sweetens the deal, with commercial rollout set to disrupt the estimated $30 billion dermatology sector.

The merger, backed by $50 million from Murchinson’s investor group, merges Pelthos’s molluscum focus with Channel’s NaV 1.7 pain programs for chronic pain, eye pain, and post-surgical nerve blocks. An upcoming update on Channel’s eye pain animal study could spark further buzz.

Post-close, the combined Pelthos Therapeutics will trade as PTHS on NYSE American.

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