Isis earns $1 million from GlaxoSmithKline for HBV program

Isis Pharmaceuticals has received $1 million from GlaxoSmithKline for advancing a program that has developed antisense drugs to treat hepatitis B virus infection, according to a company press release.

Isis is currently developing drugs to treat hepatitis B virus (HBV), and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has exclusivity to in-license and commercialize the products after Isis shows success in a clinical concept study with the drugs, according to the release.

“Our collaboration with GSK has been very productive resulting in three novel antisense drugs in our pipeline,” B. Lynne Parshall, Isis chief operating officer, said in the release. “We look forward to continuing to advance these drugs and add additional new drugs to our pipeline with GSK. Including the $1 million announced today, we have earned $11 million in payments from GSK to discover and develop drugs for HBV.”

“HBV infection is a serious health problem that can lead to significant and potentially fatal health conditions, including cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer,” C. Frank Bennett, PhD, senior vice president of research at Isis, said in the release. “While chronic HBV is currently treated with oral antiviral agents or injectable interferons, these treatments do not clear HBV and do not effectively clear HBV antigens from these patients. This means that patients are unable to fully control HBV infection and achieve sustained disease remission. We believe that using our antisense approach, we can develop a drug that has the potential to fill this patient need.”