Janssen Licenses Ionis’ Second AOrally Delivered Antisense Drug
Almost three years after J&J handed over $35 million in cash and promised up to $800 million in milestones to cozy up to the antisense research team at Ionis, the pharma giant has stepped back up for its second RNA development deal with a $10 million for Ionis’ antisense drug for the treatment of a GI autoimmune disease.
Ionis is the leading company in RNA-targeted drug discovery and development focused on developing drugs for patients who have the highest unmet medical needs, such as those patients with severe and rare diseases. Using its proprietary antisense technology, Ionis has created a large pipeline of first-in-class or best-in-class drugs, with over three dozen drugs in development.
Under the agreement, Ionis is eligible to receive as much as $800 million in development, regulatory and sales milestones and license fees for three programs, as well as royalties on sales from any product that is successfully commercialized.
“IONIS-JBI1-2.5Rx is the first antisense drug to enter development as part of Ionis’ collaboration with Janssen to discover and develop orally administered, locally acting RNA-targeted therapeutics for autoimmune diseases in the gastrointestinal tract. We are very pleased to have rapidly advanced this first drug candidate into development within a year and a half of initiating our collaboration with Janssen,”
said B. Lynne Parshall, chief operating officer at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. “This new drug further expands our technology’s reach into a new therapeutic setting and a new route of delivery.“
