Isis Pharmaceuticals, Roche deal
Roche and Isis partnered to develop therapies to treat Huntington's disease (HD). Isis will use its antisense oligonucleotide technology to discover and develop new and existing therapeutics that block production of all forms of the huntingtin (HTT) protein, as well as production of the disease-causing forms of HTT. Isis, which will fund development through Phase I testing, has a series of anti-mutant HTT oligonucleotides in preclinical testing for HD.
In parallel, the partners will combine Isis' technology with Roche technology that uses transferrin receptor protein 1 ( TFRC; TFR; CD71) to shuttle antibodies from one side of the blood-brain barrier to the other to increase brain penetration of antisense oligonucleotide therapeutics administered to asymptomatic patients. After Phase I testing, Roche has an exclusive option to license worldwide rights to develop and commercialize therapeutics from either development track. ...