Roche pays Ionis $45 million for exciting Huntington's candidate

13 December 2017

Carlsbad, California-based Ionis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: IONS) has announced that Roche (ROG: SIX) has excerised its option to license its IONIS-HTTRx after positive Phase I/IIa data in Huntington's disease (HD).

The results, which were covered enthusiastically by mainstream media outlets, have been described as potentially the “biggest breakthrough in neurodegenerative diseases for 50 years.”

The positive outcome for Ionis, which follows recent less encouraging news from the company’s attempts to bring inotersen to market as a treatment for ATTR amyloidosis, triggered a $45 million license fee payment from the Swiss pharma giant.

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