CARLSBAD, Calif., July 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Isis Pharmaceuticals,
Inc. (Nasdaq: ISIS) announced today that Abbott has invested an additional
$20 million in Ibis Biosciences, Inc., an Isis subsidiary. The investment
will allow Ibis to further develop the Ibis T5000(TM) Biosensor System, which
offers a unique solution for rapid identification and characterization of
infectious agents. By making this investment, Abbott retains the exclusive
option to purchase the remaining equity in Ibis for an additional $175 to $190
million through June 30, 2009, depending on whether certain pre-negotiated
milestones have been completed. If Abbott acquires Ibis, in addition to the
purchase price for Ibis' equity, Isis will receive an earn out tied to the
achievement of certain cumulative sales. Including this investment, Abbott
has invested $40 million in Ibis and holds 18.6 percent of the equity in Ibis.
The remaining Ibis equity is owned by Isis.
'We are aggressively accelerating the expansion of our commercial products
into larger market opportunities, and this recent financing from Abbott will
provide the capital to continue on this path,' said Michael Treble, President
of Ibis. 'In just a few short months, we have made significant progress
toward completing milestones identified by Abbott and Ibis that will increase
the value of Ibis and move us forward toward clinical diagnostics.'
ABOUT IBIS T5000 BIOSENSOR SYSTEM AND IBIS BIOSCIENCES, INC.
Ibis Biosciences, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary of Isis
Pharmaceuticals, has developed and is commercializing the Ibis T5000(TM)
Biosensor System for rapid identification and characterization of infectious
agents. The Ibis T5000 is currently intended for research use only and not
for use in diagnostic procedures. It is capable of identifying virtually all
bacteria, viruses and fungi, and can provide information about drug
resistance, virulence and strain type of these pathogens. Commercial
applications for the Ibis T5000 Biosensor System include epidemiologic
surveillance, monitoring of pandemic diseases, identification of emerging or
previously unknown pathogens, forensic characterization of human samples,
identification of sources of hospital-associated infections, and, in the
future, human infectious disease diagnostics. Ibis develops, manufactures and
markets Ibis T5000 instruments and assay kits.
