Isis, AstraZeneca In Antisense Therapies Alliance

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and AstraZeneca entered a strategic collaboration to discover and develop antisense therapies for cardiovascular, metabolic and renal diseases. The collaboration expands an existing relationship to support AZ’s strategic approach in these therapeutic areas using novel RNA-targeted treatments. It also enables Isis to extend use of its antisense technology to diseases of the kidney. Isis will receive $65 million upfront plus development and regulatory milestones for each program that AstraZeneca advances to clinical development. Isis is also eligible to earn royalties on sales.
 
Antisense drugs are chemically modified, single-stranded nucleic acids that have the ability to target any gene product of interest, offering new opportunities for therapeutic intervention.
 
Mene Pangalos, executive vice president, Innovative Medicines & Early Development at AstraZeneca, said, “Antisense-based therapies are rapidly gaining momentum in the clinic and becoming an important component of our early stage pipeline. This collaboration combines the world-class antisense drug research capabilities of Isis with our expertise in cardiovascular, metabolic and renal disease drug discovery and development. By working together, we aim to uncover targets and pathways that can be manipulated using antisense drug therapy.”
 
B. Lynne Parshall, chief operating officer at Isis, said: “This new collaboration will help broaden the application of our antisense technology to targets in the kidney. AstraZeneca is committed to finding novel best-in-class therapies for some of the largest, most complex and fastest growing disease segments in the developed world. Combining our antisense technology with AstraZeneca’s strong knowledge, leadership and commitment in these areas should be very valuable in fully exploiting these opportunities and moving new therapies effectively and efficiently toward the market.”