Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it has earned a $5 million milestone payment from GSK related to the initiation of a phase 1 study of ISIS-GSK4-LRx (formerly ISIS-GSK4Rx) in healthy volunteers.  ISIS-GSK4-LRx is one of five drugs in development with GSK and is designed to treat patients with an undisclosed ocular disorder.

GSK and Isis have established an alliance focused on leveraging antisense technology to develop drugs to treat rare and infectious diseases.  This alliance provides GSK with access to Isis' expertise in RNA-targeted drug discovery and development, with Isis retaining responsibility for the discovery and development of drugs to the alliance targets from inception to proof-of-concept.  GSK has the option to license each antisense programme at a particular stage in development.  

Current development-stage programmes include ISIS-HBVRx for patients with hepatitis B virus, ISIS-GSK4-LRx for patients with an undisclosed ocular disorder, ISIS-RHO-2.5Rx for patients with autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa, ISIS-GSK6-LRx for patients with an undisclosed viral disorder and ISIS-TTRRx, which is in Phase 3 development for patients with transthyretin amyloidosis.  To date, Isis has generated nearly $135 million from GSK as its partnered programs have advanced in development.

Isis is the leading company in RNA-targeted drug discovery and development focused on developing drugs for patients who have the highest unmet medical needs, such as those patients with severe and rare diseases.