Isis Adds New Drug to Its Development Pipeline: ISIS 388626 Targeting SGLT2 for the Treatment of Type ...( CARLSBAD Calif. Oct. 18 /- IsisPh...),Health

CARLSBAD, Calif., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISIS) today announced that it has added a new diabetes drug targeting the sodium dependent glucose transporter type 2 (SGLT2) to its development pipeline. ISIS 388626, a generation 2.2 antisense drug that acts in the kidney to increase glucose excretion, complements Isis' existing pipeline of drugs in development for the treatment of diabetes, each of which act upon targets in the liver through distinct mechanisms to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce glucose production, or affect other metabolic aspects of this complex disease.

The productivity of antisense technology has allowed Isis to rapidly evaluate many potential targets for treatment of complex metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity in well established animal models. To date, Isis has analyzed the effects of inhibiting over 120 distinct gene targets in animals, and the efficiency of the drug discovery process should continue to provide a rich source of promising drugs with which to populate Isis' future pipeline. ISIS 388626 is the fourth development candidate to come out of Isis' extensive metabolic disease drug discovery program.

"We think ISIS 388626 is an exciting addition to our portfolio that offers a kidney-based mechanism, which will complement our other diabetes drugs in development," said Sanjay Bhanot, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President of Metabolic Diseases Research & Development, Isis Pharmaceuticals. "This is the first kidney target that we have approached with our second-generation drugs, and we are quite encouraged by what we have seen in the animal models. We know that antisense drugs distribute most readily to the liver, kidney, fat cells, b
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