Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Message Board

Antisense is good for targeting and that's where it mostly ends except for the star struck Ph.ds who want to give it a try. This is good but most of the elite big pharma as Novartis and Gilead know better. Problems with antisense therapy still exist after two decades. Antisense compounds still have a short half-life in plasma due to the destruction by cellular enzymes such as DNase, which is ubiquitous in the body. This combined with the need for these compounds to be administered parenterally, makes them inconvenient for chronic treatment of systemic diseases. Once in a while Isis will state that the short half-life has been solved... not true. If it were true, why the spike needed every week. Remember, NO ORAL administered yet even thought Isis stated in 1999 , "Our collaboration with Elan " will succeed in success very soon. Later Elan dropped it like a separate disease.
The aim was to use chenical modifications to increase both stability and specificity which was later improved, however, not good enough as it has been later proven. The hyped inmprovment announcements fooled the funds that the problem was over, back in they came only to be trounced again. The same side-effects still exist to this day although this fact will not be stated. Problems such as the release of cytokines complement associated effects on blood pressure, increase in clotting time and some loss of peripheral vision. Remember the melanoma growth problem ? I won't get back into the toxic liver problems or the cancer scare or the kidney or bone marrow attacts on the human body. Enough said, I'm still hoping for some antisense drug flaw magical solution for the treatment of disease. It's not here yet, you wouldn't know it by all of the antisense drug hype cast around the world recently. Most fund managers haven't a clue... not all. Again, let's hope for success !

Darkouttonight