Ionis Innovation
Our antisense-powered pipeline
Our drug discovery platform has served as a springboard for drug discovery and realized hope for patients with unmet needs. Our broad, diverse pipeline has more than 40 first-in-class and/or best-in-class medicines designed to treat a broad range of diseases including cancer and cardiovascular, neurological, infectious and pulmonary diseases.
The result of 30 years of perfecting and advancing RNA targeted drug discovery and development, our proprietary platform now provides a fast and efficient path from genomic discovery to life-saving therapies.
Neurological
Generation 2+ antisense drug
ION363 is a Generation 2+ antisense drug designed to prevent the production of the Fused in Sarcoma (FUS) protein. It is being developed as a potential therapy for an inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in patients with mutations in the FUS gene. FUS-ALS is the third most common inherited form of ALS1. Mutant FUS causes motor neuron degeneration through a toxic gain of function mechanism2. In patients, mutant FUS protein aggregates in motor neurons3. Antisense-mediated reduction of mutant FUS protein in a FUS-ALS mouse model prevents motor neuron loss. It is hypothesized that reduction of FUS protein will reverse or prevent disease progression in FUS-ALS patients.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
ALS is a rare, fatal neurodegenerative disorder characterized by loss and dysfunction of neurons in motor pathways with a prevalence of approximately five cases per 100,000 persons in the U.S.4About 15 to 20 percent of all ALS cases are familial, and FUS-ALS accounts for approximately 5 percent of familial ALS. Like all ALS, people with FUS-ALS suffer progressive degeneration of motor neurons, which results in a declining quality of life and ultimately death. People with ALS experience muscle weakness, loss of movement, difficulty in breathing and swallowing and eventually succumb to their disease. Currently, treatment options for patients with ALS are extremely limited with no drugs that significantly slow disease progression.
- Da Cruz, S. et al. (2011) Understanding the role of TDP-43 and FUS/TLS in ALS and beyond. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 21:904-919.
- Sharma, A. et al. (2016) ALS-associated mutant FUS induces selective motor neuron degeneration through toxic gain of function. Nat Commun. 7:10465.
- Mackenzie, I.R. et al. (2010) TDP-43 and FUS in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Lancet Neurol. 9:995-1007.
- Mehta, P. et al. (2018) Prevalence of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis — United States, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 67(7):216–218.
* Safety and efficacy have not been evaluated by any regulatory authorities for the indications described.
Future-creating, antisense medicines
