By Mary Welch

Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., which plans to take its lead compound into Phase III trials later this year, raised $27.25 million through the sale of 1 million shares of stock

Isis sold the shares at $27.25 each, which was a negotiated price. The financing is part of an ongoing relationship with the principal investor, New York-based Acqua Wellington North American Equities Fund Ltd. Ridgeway Investment Ltd. was the underwriter.

The financing was part of a shelf registration statement the company filed in November for 4 million shares. ¿We have issued a plan of financing for the placement of those shares,¿ said Isis¿ chief financial officer, B. Lynne Parshall. ¿A little bit of the shares have already been sold so we have slightly less than 3 million left.¿

Currently the company has 31 million shares outstanding. The proceeds will help support the company¿s operations for the next three years.

The company has five compounds in clinical trials, all in Phase II, except for ISIS 14803, an antisense drug, which just entered Phase I/II trials to treat hepatitis C. ISIS 14803 is being developed with Elan Corp. plc., of Dublin, Ireland.

The Carlsbad, Calif.-based company will use the proceeds to take ISIS 3521 into Phase III trials later this year as well for the other trials.

ISIS 3521, an inhibitor of protein kinase C-alpha expression, is currently finishing up Phase II trials in non-small-cell lung cancer. The drug has also had some ¿promising data with non-Hodgkin¿s lymphoma,¿ Parshall said.

However, ISIS 3521 has a checkered past. The drug was being developed in a partnership with Novartis Pharma AG, of Basel, Switzerland, but Novartis pulled out of the deal late last year. Isis received back all rights to ISIS 3521 and ISIS 5132, which is in Phase II trials for breast and ovarian cancers. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 23, 1999, p. 1.)

A drug that earlier this year suffered a Phase III setback, ISIS 2302, is finishing up Phase II trials for the prevention of renal transplant rejection. It is also in Phase II studies with an enema formulation for ulcerative colitis and a topical formulation for psoriasis. An aerosol administration for asthma is being explored.

ISIS 2302 is an antisense inhibitor that targets intercellular adhesion molecule-1. It failed to demonstrate a statistically significance difference from placebo in 300 patients with Crohn¿s disease. The setback caused the company to cut its staff by nearly 40 percent, or 160 jobs. Isis regained the rights to ISIS 2302 when Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, ended its five-year development partnership. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 16, 1999, p. 1; Jan. 19, 2000, p. 1; and Sept. 3, 1999, p. 1.)

Also in Phase II trials for pancreatic and breast cancer is ISIS 2503.

Isis ended 1999 with a net loss of $59.6 million on revenues of $33.9 million. As of Dec. 31, the company had $53 million in cash.

Isis¿ stock (NASDAQ: ISIP) closed Tuesday at $25.50, down $2.687.