It is not often one hears of a company taking the decision to sell its entire commercial operations, but that is exactly what Ligand Pharmaceuticals did early in September 2006. Following months of shareholder uncertainty and years of non-profitability, Ligand finally decided to take the somewhat drastic measure of disposing of its five marketed products across two deals with King Pharmaceuticals and Eisai; a move that earned the company close to US$0.5 B in cash and will assist in its move to become an R&D and royalty company.