Isis Pharmaceuticals adds ISIS-APOCIIIRx to its development pipeline to treat TG

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISIS) announced today that it has added a new drug, ISIS-APOCIIIRx, to its development pipeline. ISIS-APOCIIIRx provides a novel approach to treat hypertriglyceridemia, or high levels of triglycerides (TG). Hypertriglyceridemia is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Hypertriglyceridemia is also a hallmark of metabolic syndrome, which occurs in a large percentage of people with type 2 diabetes. ISIS-APOCIIIRx is the second new drug added to Isis' expanding cardiovascular pipeline in the past year.

"Managing high levels of triglycerides is important not only in cardiovascular disease but also in metabolic and some inflammatory diseases. We believe that ISIS-APOCIIIRx will provide patients and physicians with a novel treatment option to lower triglycerides," said Stanley T. Crooke, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Isis. "ApoC-III is a novel target to lower triglycerides and adds to our pipeline an alternate, yet complementary, approach to lipid management."

ISIS-APOCIIIRx is designed to reduce apolipoprotein C-III (apoC-III), a key regulator of serum TG levels. ApoC-III is synthesized in the liver and has been difficult to approach using traditional therapeutics, making it an ideal target for Isis' antisense technology. In preclinical studies, ISIS-APOCIIIRx mitigated symptoms of metabolic syndrome and reduced atherosclerosis in mice. Isis is developing ISIS-APOCIIIRx as part of its strategy to discover and develop drugs for lipid management.

Additionally, Dr. Rosanne Crooke, Isis' Executive Director of Cardiovascular Diseases, will present data on ISIS-APOCIIIRx in an oral presentation titled "Development of Novel Antisense Inhibitors for the Treatment of Hypertriglyceridemia." The presentation will take place on Wednesday, January 13 at the Keystone Symposia on Triglycerides and Triglyceride-Rich Particles in Health and Disease in Big Sky, Montana.

More detail on ISIS-APOCIIIRx and other drugs in Isis' pipeline will also be presented at J.P. Morgan's 28th Annual Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, January 13, 2010, at 9:30 a.m. PT in San Francisco.