Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. and PerSeptive Biosystems Inc.announced that they have finalized their agreement on Perisis,the strategic alliance they formed to develop novel tools formanufacturing oligonucleotide therapeutics.

Under the agreement, which the companies announced March1, PerSeptive (NASDAQ:PBIO) of Cambridge, Mass., will have theoption to commercialize novel purification, analysis andsynthesis products developed by Perisis. Isis (NASDAQ:ISIP) ofCarlsbad, Calif., and PerSeptive will focus on developing novelpurification protocols to reduce the time required forpurification, improve levels of purity, increase yield ofoligonucleotide product and lower production costs.They willalso investigate the use of PerSeptive's Poros media as supportsfor the large-scale synthesis of oligonucleotides. -- Jennifer VanBrunt

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.