I have followed ISIS for some time and when Ken had it on His CJ list I did some further DD. I looked at where 50 and 200 MA cross and althoght a bit far from crossing it is in the right trend.
And Just Recently
Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ISIS) recently inked a major deal with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) under which Isis' antisense drug discovery platform will be used for the development of new treatments for rare and serious diseases, including infectious and ocular diseases.
Isis will receive an upfront payment of $35 million under the deal which covers up to six programs. In addition to the upfront payment, the company also stands to receive up to $20 million in milestone payments for each program up to the phase II proof-of-concept (PoC) stage.
On completion of PoC studies, Glaxo has the option to license the compounds and take over the development and commercialization of the compounds. If all six programs are successful and commercialized to pre-determined sales targets, Isis could receive almost $1.5 billion in license fees and milestone payments.
Isis is also eligible to receive tiered double-digit royalties on sales of products that are commercialized.
This deal is a major boost for Isis. It not only validates the company’s antisense technology, it also provides the company with funds in the form of upfront, milestone and other payments. Meanwhile, this deal will allow Glaxo to gain access to Isis’ antisense technology which has the potential to be used for the development of several therapeutic treatments.
We are big fans of antisense technology which is the main area of focus at Isis. We believe that antisense technology represents an exciting and potentially revolutionary platform for developing therapeutic candidates to treat a wide margin of diseases.
Isis has several proprietary compounds in clinical development as well as partnered programs with large pharmaceutical companies such as Bristol-Myers, Lilly (LLY), Pfizer (PFE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Genzyme (GENZ).
