8-K

                       SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

                             WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

                                 ---------------



                                    FORM 8-K

                                 CURRENT REPORT

     Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

        Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): October 11, 2005

                       LIGAND PHARMACEUTICALS INCORPORATED
             (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

                                    DELAWARE
                 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation)

                                    000-20720
                            (Commission File Number)

                           10275 SCIENCE CENTER DRIVE
                              SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
                    (Address of principal executive offices)

                                 (858) 550-7500
                    Registrant's telephone number, including area code)

                                   77-0160744
                      (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

                                   92121-1117
                                   (Zip Code)





ITEM 8.01   OTHER EVENTS

On October 11, 2005, the company sent a letter to Third Point LLC. The text of
the letter is furnished as Exhibit 99.1 hereto.

ITEM 9.01         EXHIBITS



EXHIBIT NUMBER    DESCRIPTION

- --------------    -----------
                
     99.1        Letter from the company to Third Point LLC, dated October 11,
                 2005.



                                   SIGNATURES

     Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned.


                                        LIGAND PHARMACEUTICALS INCORPORATED




Date: October 11, 2005                    By:    /s/ Warner R. Broaddus
                                        Name:    Warner R. Broaddus
                                        Title:   Vice President, General Counsel
                                                 & Secretary

EX-99

                                                                    EXHIBIT 99.1
                               [Ligand Letterhead]







October 11, 2005

Daniel S. Loeb
Chief Executive Officer
THIRD POINT LLC
390 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Dear Mr. Loeb:

I am disappointed by your response of yesterday afternoon declining my offer to
have you meet directly with our lead independent director and me to discuss in
greater detail your requests that we were seeking to address in our letter of
October 3. Your unwillingness to meet is particularly disconcerting given our
proposals to meet with you in London or New York, or telephonically, within the
next week to ten days.

Instead of agreeing to what our Board of Directors had hoped would be a
productive meeting, you have increased your demands which now include the
immediate appointment of three directors employed by or associated with Third
Point to the Board and that the Board set an annual meeting to occur before the
end of the year, notwithstanding that current financial information is not yet
available to our stockholders. Absent the Board's immediate accession to these
demands, you advised us your group will initiate legal action to compel an
annual meeting.

As to your request for the immediate appointment of yourself and two other
directors from Third Point, you declined to provide detailed curricula vitae or
other background information regarding such nominees. We again renew our
invitation to you to provide this information in accordance with our bylaws and
nominating guidelines so that our Nominating Committee can responsibly evaluate
those candidates. Without such information, it would be difficult for our Board
to consider, and inappropriate for our Board to accede to, your demand.

As to your demand for an annual meeting before year end, our Board continues to
desire to work with you to agree on a mutually acceptable date for that meeting.
However that meeting should follow the completion of our restatement and a
period of time sufficient to allow our stockholders to digest both that
financial information and other business updates we would provide in conjunction
with the restatement. We do not understand why you, as a fiduciary to (and
perhaps ultimate economic owner of) the funds that you manage, would commence
costly litigation that could be unnecessary if you were to engage in discussions
with us regarding a mutually agreeable date that would be in the interests of
all stockholders.




I intend to convey these demands to the Board. In the meantime, both I and our
lead independent director remain prepared to conduct a constructive dialogue
with you concerning your issues with regard to the Company. However, it is
difficult to do so without having the opportunity for both of us to communicate
with you directly on the relevant topics and I certainly do not expect that any
of our stockholders will benefit from the confrontations you instead seek to
create in court and elsewhere.


Very truly yours,

/s/ David E. Robinson

David E. Robinson
Chairman, President and Chief Executive
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

cc:      Board of Directors of Ligand Pharmaceuticals