ISIS Pharmaceuticals Inc.


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ISIS Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that Bristol-Myers Squibb Company has selected a compound from the companies' collaboration as a development candidate. As a result,Isis will receive a $2 million milestone payment. The two companies have an ongoing collaboration to identify antisense drugs that target proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9 (PCSK9). The development candidate is an antisense inhibitor of PCSK9 that helps regulate the amount of cholesterol in the bloodstream. The selection of this development candidate marks the achievement of the first milestone in this collaboration,which was announced on May 9,2007. The compound was designed to selectively inhibit the production of PCSK9 and could offer a new and complementary mechanism to current lipid-lowering therapies for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.