Isis receives milestone payment from iCo for eye diseases study

The payment is in the form of equity securities in iCo Therapeutics. The licensed drug designed and discovered by Isis, iCo-007, is a second-generation antisense drug that inhibits the production of c-Raf kinase, an enzyme associated with the formation of new and often abnormal or fragile blood vessels in the eye.

Blood vessel breakage and leakage can contribute to vision loss, and iCo-007 is expected to decrease swelling in the retina and related visual impairment by decreasing the signaling of various growth factors such as VEGF that signal through the c-Raf kinase/MAP kinase pathway.

Frank Bennett, senior vice president of research at Isis, said: “Because our antisense technology enables us to rapidly discover so many highly selective antisense drugs to diverse and important disease targets, we are not able to invest in the development of every promising drug candidate.

“By licensing drugs at various points in development, we can continue to expand the scope and value of our external pipeline in therapeutic areas that are outside of our key focus, as evidenced by this latest clinical milestone from iCo.”