Staff Writer

A month after sealing a joint venture deal focused on microRNA, Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. continues to capitalize on its growing antisense platform by licensing rights to an inhaled asthma product to newly formed Altair Therapeutics Inc.

In addition to developing ISIS 369645, an inhibitor of the IL-4/IL-13 signaling pathways, which has shown promise in preclinical models of asthma, Altair also will collaborate with Carlsbad, Calif.-based Isis to discover drugs against other respiratory disease targets.

Isis, in turn, will own about 18 percent of the start-up firm and will be eligible for milestones and royalties as ISIS 369645 and any other drugs move through development.

The newly established Altair was founded by Thomas, McNerney & Partners LLC, specifically to focus on Isis' compounds for respiratory conditions.

The venture capital firm, which closed at $375 million fund in August 2006, had been looking for programs "in asthma and other respiratory diseases," said Pratik Shah, partner at Thomas, McNerney, and a member of Altair's board. "We were trying to identify opportunities for breakthrough therapies."

The combination of the mechanism of Isis' program, particularly its apparent effect on the IL-13 pathway, and the "tremendous interest in increasing the value of RNA-based therapies," drew the VC firm to create Altair, Shah told BioWorld Today. "And we saw an opportunity to structure this deal and put it together."

Thomas, McNerney provides investment funding, generally taking a lead or co-lead position, in biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device firms across different stages of development.

The firm, which has offices in San Francisco, Minneapolis and Stamford, Conn., recently added two new hires, naming Eric Aguiar partner in its Connecticut office and appointing Jason Brown an associate in its San Francisco office.

The Altair deal is part of what Isis calls its satellite strategy, an ongoing effort to broaden the reach of its antisense program.

For compounds outside the company's cardiovascular and metabolic disease focus, it seeks partnerships or licensing deals to advance other applications. Isis previously licensed out rights to an ophthalmic-focused compound to start-up firm iCo Therapeutics Inc. That 2005 deal included rights to ISIS 13560, a second-generation antisense drug in development for diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. Isis recently received a $1.25 million milestone payment, in the form of equity securities, from Vancouver, British Columbia-based iCo, following the initiation of Phase I trials.

Other Isis deals include an ongoing cancer collaboration with OncoGenex Technologies Inc., also of Vancouver, and a joint venture signed earlier this year with major RNAi player Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. The joint venture, established as Regulus Therapeutics LLC, calls for a $10 million investment by Cambridge, Mass.-based Alnylam, with both companies exclusively licensing rights to their respective mRNA intellectual property. Both also will share equally in future funding. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 10, 2007.)

In its internal pipeline, the company continues to advance ISIS 301012, which has shown positive Phase II results as a cholesterol-lowering agent. Isis is looking to partner that program. It secured a big pharma partner last month for earlier-stage metabolic candidates, ISIS 325568 and ISIS 377131, in a deal with Johnson & Johnson unit Ortho-McNeil Inc. that could bring Isis up to $440 million in up-front payments, research funding and development- and sales-based milestones. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 14, 2007.)

Shares of Isis (NASDAQ:ISIS) closed at $17.64 Tuesday, up 27 cents.