AstraZeneca links with Isis Pharma on antisense drugs

Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) has entered a strategic collaboration with USA-based Isis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ISIS) to discover and develop antisense therapies for cardiovascular, metabolic and renal diseases.

The new collaboration builds on a broad existing relationship between the two companies and supports AstraZeneca’s strategic approach in these therapeutic areas using novel RNA-targeted treatments. It also enables Isis Pharmaceuticals to extend use of its antisense technology to diseases of the kidney. The two companies have previously teamed up to investigate RNA therapeutics for cancer.

Antisense drugs are short, chemically-modified, single-stranded nucleic acids (antisense oligonucleotides) that have the ability to target any gene product of interest. They offer new opportunities for therapeutic intervention because they act inside the cell to influence protein production by targeting RNA to either prevent the production of disease-causing proteins, increase the production of proteins deficient in disease, or target toxic RNAs that are unable to generate proteins.