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GSK has Initiated a Phase 1 Study of IONIS-HBV-L Rx

CARLSBAD, Calif., Jan. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IONS) today announced that GSK has initiated a Phase 1 study of IONIS-HBV-LRx.  Ionis earned a $1.5 million milestone payment from GSK related to the initiation of this study.  IONIS-HBV-LRx, which was previously referred to as ISIS-GSK6-LRx, is a drug Ionis is developing with GSK for the treatment of patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV).  IONIS-HBV-LRx incorporates Ionis' LIgand Conjugated Antisense (LICA) technology that increases drug potency by enhancing delivery of the drug to its target tissue, which for this drug is the liver.  Ionis and GSK are also collaborating on the development of IONIS-HBVRx,  a generation 2.0+ antisense HBV drug.  Both IONIS-HBVRx and IONIS-HBV-LRx are part of Ionis' alliance with GSK

"Together with GSK, we plan to make progress on both of our HBV medicines in 2016.  GSK plans to initiate a Phase 2 study on IONIS-HBVRx in patients with HBV infection and to complete the Phase 1 study on IONIS-HBV-LRx.  IONIS-HBV-LRx is our first anti-infective drug in development that incorporates our LICA technology, which, due to its potential for enhanced potency, may have the benefit of robust activity paired with infrequent very-low doses," concluded Dr. Bennett.

Dr Zhi Hong, Senior Vice President Infectious Diseases GSK, commented "We are pleased that the start of these early clinical studies marks further progress in our collaboration with Ionis.  We look forward to developing such innovative treatments that may allow HBV patients to achieve sustained remission."

http://ir.ionispharma.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=222170&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2128830
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Avatar universal
It is not interfering RNA, which are small rna molecules binding to specific hbv messenger RNA to initiate the dicer cutting mechanism, to destroy this HBV RNA. It mimics a mechanism that cells use to control the level of gene expression.
but this is ANTISENSE RNA , the long time specialty of this company, that recently changed its name.
It uses longer specific fitting RNA THAT will form an RNA double helix with the target messenger RNA, to inactivate it.
It is hard to say if it's efficiency will be similar or better than the current iRNA approaches, or worse.
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Avatar universal
is it some RNAi drug with different delivery method ?
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