CARLSBAD, Calif., May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISIS) announced today that the strategic alliance between Isis and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) has been honored with the Breakthrough Alliance Award of 2011. The award, sponsored by Deloitte Recap, was presented at the Allicense 2011 Conference in San Francisco last week. Annually, the Allicense Conference nominates five biotech-pharmaceutical alliances as the breakthrough deals of the previous year. The award is bestowed upon the alliance that receives the most votes by biotech and pharmaceutical business development and licensing executives.
"Our business strategy maximizes the value of our innovations through strategic alliances, such as our alliance with GSK. The success of this strategy is evident in the substantial financing raised through partnering and the breadth of our pipeline. We are pleased to have received this recognition from our peers in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. In fact, this is the second time we have received this honor," said B. Lynne Parshall, Chief Operating Officer and CFO of Isis. "This award is especially befitting, as both companies employ an innovative and collaborative approach to partnering. In just over a year, we have already identified our first development candidate, ISIS-TTRRx, the first drug to move forward under this collaboration. We look forward to advancing ISIS-TTRRx into the clinic and achieving further successes in the collaboration."
In March 2010, Isis entered into a strategic alliance with GSK to develop RNA therapeutics for rare and infectious diseases. Under the terms of the agreement, Isis received $35 million in payments from GSK and is eligible to receive license fees and milestone payments, totaling nearly $1.5 billion, in the event all six programs are successfully developed for one or more indications and commercialized through to pre-agreed sales targets. Isis is eligible to receive on average up to $20 million in milestone payments per program up to Phase 2 proof-of-concept.