Isis Pharmaceuticals this week announced that it has formed an alliance with Roche to develop antisense-based treatments for Huntington’s disease.
The companies are also working together to combine Isis’ antisense oligos with Roche’s so-called brain shuttle program to increase the brain penetration of the molecules with systemic administration, Isis said.
Roche will pay Isis $30 million upfront, and Isis stands to receive up to $362 million in license fees and milestone payments. Isis will also be entitled to tiered royalties on sales of any drug resulting from the alliance.
Isis will be responsible for drug development up until the completion of phase I testing. Roche has the option to license any drug after phase I, at which point it will be responsible for all further development and commercialization responsibilities.
Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.