Isis Announces Approximately $2.8 Million in Government Grants and Contracts Awarded to its Ibis Subsidiary to Advance Ibis' Pathogen Identification ...( CARLSBAD Calif. Feb. 12 /- IsisPh...),Health

CARLSBAD, Calif., Feb. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISIS) announced today that its majority-owned subsidiary, Ibis Biosciences, Inc. (Ibis), has been awarded two new Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and a new government contract totaling up to approximately $2.8 million. The SBIR grants awarded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Army will fund advancements in the Ibis T5000(TM) Biosensor System for new biodefense applications, including the detection and identification of infectious agents within the military blood supply. The contract from the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS-S&T) adds to a contract awarded in September 2007 from the same agency for the advancement of Ibis' microbial forensics applications and the enhancement of Ibis' microbial database.

"The ongoing government support we received enables us to broaden the utility of the T5000 System in new applications such as blood supply screening, where there is a need to expand the breadth of screening technologies to identify all important organisms," said Michael Treble, President of Ibis and Vice President of Isis. "The additional contract funding from DHS-S&T will expedite the expansion of our microbial database of pathogens."

The SBIR grants fund the application of the Ibis T5000 Biosensor System into new areas of biothreat detection, including the identification of bacteria, viruses and parasites that might cause disease in active military forces or contaminate the military blood supply.

"We have earned nearly $70 million in revenue to fund development of our infectious disease identification and
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