GSK walks away from Ionis antisense drugs

GlaxoSmithkline has turned down options to take on board Ionis Pharmaceuticals' experimental antisense therapies inotersen and IONIS-FB-LRx following a pipeline revamp. Inotersen is being developed for patients with TTR amyloidosis (ATTR), a rare disease caused by the build-up of amyloid within the tissues of the body damaging the structure and the function of the organs affected. Ionis said it recently completed a Phase III trial of inotersen demonstrating its “significant benefit” on both primary clinical endpoints of neurological disease progression and quality of life in patients with polyneuropathy due to hereditary ATTR, and that it plans to file the drug with regulators later this year with a view to a launch in 2018.