Massachusetts-backed Isis Pharmaceuticals receives $3.5m milestone payment from Biogen for battle against spinal muscular atrophy.
Isis Pharmaceuticals has been awarded a $3.5m milestone payment from Biogen Idec after the firm’s success in dosing its first patient with a treatment aimed at curing infants with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
The Calif.-based firm uses intellectual property licensed from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, as well as IP developed at research centre Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
The first treatment marks phase 2 of the study of the SMA treatment, ISIS-SMRrx, which is an “open-label, multiple-dose, dose-escalation pilot study” that includes 8 infants who have been diagnosed with the condition.
