Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc announced that it has earned a $1 million milestone from Eyetech Pharmaceuticals Inc associated with Eyetech's filing of a New Drug Application (NDA) with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Macugen (pegaptanib sodium injection) for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
In 2002, Eyetech licensed from Isis specific patents necessary to develop, manufacture and commercialize Macugen. Under the terms of the agreement, Isis may earn additional milestone and royalty payments from Eyetech.
"This milestone demonstrates the value of our large patent estate, and reflects our ongoing efforts to capture the many near and long-term opportunities our intellectual property provides," said B. Lynne Parshall, executive vice and CFO. "In actively creating opportunities for the industry to access our patents, we are generating revenue for the continued development of our strong product portfolio, while supporting other companies in bringing important new products to market," he commented.
Isis' chemistry suite of patents represents a subset of Isis' overall intellectual property estate of more than 1,400 issued patents that the company owns or exclusively licenses covering RNA-based drug discovery and development. More specifically, the estate covers fundamental oligonucleotide chemistries; antisense-based gene functionalization and identification of validated therapeutic target regions for physiologically relevant genes; antisense drug discovery (multiple mechanisms); antisense therapeutics; manufacturing; formulations, and delivery of oligonucleotide therapeutics and Ibis' RNA technology for the identification of infectious biological agents (TIGER).
Isis has taken advantage of its work in RNA-based drug discovery and development to build the industry's leading intellectual position in this field. While Isis continues to patent its inventions, the company actively defends its intellectual property rights and seeks licensing partners. Most recently, in March 2004, Isis and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals established an alliance that combines Isis' intellectual property and development expertise with Alnylam's intellectual property and research expertise in RNA therapeutics. This alliance is an example of the company's strategy to participate in all areas of RNA-based drug discovery directly and through collaborations with companies focused in specific areas, such as antisense mechanisms and chemistry.
Wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss in patients older than 50 years of age in the developed world.
Macugen is a non-antisense, investigational treatment for ophthalmic diseases, including wet AMD and diabetic macular edema.