Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:LGND) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 27, 2024 8:30 AM ET
Company Participants
Tavo Espinoza - CFO
Todd Davis - CEO
Mattew Korenberg - COO
Conference Call Participants
Matt Hewitt - Craig-Hallum Capital Group
Lawrence Solow - CJS Securities
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome everyone to the Ligand Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Webcast. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
I would now hand the call over to Tavo Espinoza, Chief Financial Officer. You may begin your conference.
Tavo Espinoza
Hello, everyone and welcome to our earnings call for the fourth quarter and year-end 2023. During the call today, we will review the financial results we released prior to today's market open and offer commentary on our partnered pipeline and business development activity, after which we will host a question-and-answer session. Our earnings release can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at ligand.com.
Participating for Ligand today will be our CEO, Todd Davis; our COO, Matt Korenberg; and myself, Tavo Espinoza, CFO. This call is being recorded, and the audio portion will be archived in the Investors section of our website. It is our intent that all forward-looking statements regarding our financial results and commercial activity made during today's call will be protected under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected or discussed. All forward-looking statements are based upon current available information, and Ligand assumes no obligation to update these statements. To better understand the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ, we refer you to the documents that Ligand has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Forms 10-Q and 10-K.
With that, I will now turn the call over to Todd.
Todd Davis
Thank you, Tavo, and welcome to everyone on the call. The end of 2023 marks the completion of my first full year as CEO of Ligand. And I'm happy to say that in the last year, we've successfully transformed the company to take Ligand to the next stage of growth.
Slide 3 summarizes our financial and portfolio achievements in 2023, which underscores our strong momentum and the strength of our business model. First, we delivered strong financial performance. We grew revenue by more than 20% when you exclude last year's COVID related Captisol sales, while reducing 2023 cash operating expenses from above $90 million per year to below $40 million per year. This resulted in core adjusted diluted earnings per share of $4.06, which is 66% above the prior year.