How many employees work at Isis?
Including Regulus, as of February 10, 2009, Isis had approximately 300 employees.

Can you provide a brief description of your Company?
Isis is exploiting its expertise in RNA to discover and develop novel drugs for its product pipeline and for its partners. The Company has successfully commercialized the world's first antisense drug and has 19 drugs in development.  Isis’ drug development programs are focused on treating cardiovascular, metabolic and severe neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.  Isis’ partners are developing antisense drugs invented by Isis to treat a wide variety of diseases.  Isis and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals are joint owners of Regulus Therapeutics Inc., a company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of microRNA therapeutics.  Isis also has made significant innovations beyond human therapeutics resulting in products that other companies, including Abbott, are commercializing.  As an innovator in RNA-based drug discovery and development, Isis is the owner or exclusive licensee of over 1,600 issued patents worldwide.

What are antisense drugs?
At least 12 known antisense mechanisms, such as RNase H, siRNA, and splicing, can be involved once an antisense drug binds to its target mRNA. Isis has created proprietary chemical modifications to exploit many of these mechanisms for drug discovery. As its understanding of these mechanisms further improves, the Company expects to develop antisense drugs with enhanced performance and for broader therapeutic applications.

An antisense mechanism is defined as the process in which an antisense inhibitor binds (hybridizes) to a target RNA to form a duplex.

Progress in Isis’ mechanism of action research program is illustrated by the Company’s accomplishments in understanding RNase H. The majority of late-stage antisense drugs in development bind to their target mRNA to form a duplex, which activates a cellular enzyme called RNase H. This enzyme destroys the target mRNA, inhibiting production of a specific protein. Isis has cloned and characterized human RNase H and has effectively used that information to design its proprietary second-generation drugs. The Company expects to further improve on its drugs, using its insights into the RNase H mechanism.

In addition to its RNase H expertise, Isis has made advancements in understanding and exploiting other antisense mechanisms such as siRNA and splicing.

On what areas of research do you focus?
Isis’ antisense drugs can be designed to treat a wide range of conditions. Isis’ drug development programs are focused on treating cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.  Isis’ partners are developing drugs for a wide variety of diseases. Isis' drug discovery efforts will continue to focus on organs of the body where antisense drugs readily distribute: liver, kidney, spleen, bone marrow and fat cells. These sites of activity give Isis broad opportunities to treat disease. Scientists extensively explored oligonucleotide medicinal chemistry and created Isis’ proprietary second-generation antisense compounds (2'-O-methoxyethyl) that offer increased potency, stability and potential for oral bioavailability. The Company has also made significant progress in developing new routes of delivery (aerosol, enema, intrathecal, intravenous, subcutaneous, intravitreal, oral and topical) of antisense drugs, which have expanded the ability to tackle chronic diseases. Additionally, Isis maintains its commitment to core technology research in areas such as antisense mechanisms of action and pharmacodynamics (the study of the action of a drug in the body over a period of time).

What products do you have in your pipeline?
The Company has commercialized its first product, Vitravene® (fomivirsen), to treat CMV-induced retinitis in AIDS patients. In addition, Isis has 19 drugs in its development pipeline. Please visit the pipeline section for more details.

Where can I get information about current clinical trials?
For information on clinical trials, please read the clinical trial section of this web site. If you need additional information, call Isis’ Clinical Trials Hotline at 800-679-ISIS (4747) and leave a message or e-mail our medical information team at trialinfo@isisph.com.

What is Ibis?
Ibis Biosciences, Inc., was a subsidiary of Isis Pharmaceuticals created to develop and market the Ibis T5000™ Biosensor System for rapid identification and characterization of infectious agents with a variety of commercial applications. In 2008, Abbott Molecular invested $40 million in Ibis to obtain 18.6% ownership in Ibis, and in early 2009, Abbott purchased the remaining equity for a total purchase price of $215 million. Isis will continue to benefit from Abbott sales of Ibis instruments and kits through earn out payments equal to five percent of Ibis’ cumulative net sales over $140 million and up to $2.1 billion and three percent over $2.1 billion.

Additional information about Ibis Biosciences can be found here.

When and where is Isis presenting at investment and medical conferences?
Please see Isis' calendar of events.