Isis Nabs $6M Bristol Payment

Isis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ISIS]]), the Carlsbad, CA-based biotech company, said today it has earned a $6 million payment from Bristol-Myers Squibb for getting clearance from regulators to begin clinical trials of a new cholesterol-lowering drug. Isis and Bristol are collaborating on BMS-PCSK9Rx, as a targeted antisense therapy which seeks to lower cholesterol by hitting the target PCSK9.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.