ISIS Pharmaceuticals Stock Trading Halted Pending FDA Panel

Isis Pharmaceuticals

announced NASDAQ has halted trading of the Company's common stock.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee meets today to review the new drug application (NDA) for KYNAMRO™ for the treatment of patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH).  The NDA was filed in March 2012 with a standard review of 10 months.  The PDUFA date is January 29, 2013. CONFERENCE CALLAt 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time today, October 18, Isis will conduct a live webcast conference call to discuss the outcome of the EMDAC meeting.  Interested parties may listen to the call by dialing 866-700-0161 (international callers should dial 617-213-8832) and refer to passcode "ISIS 2012," or access the webcast at www.isispharm.com.  A webcast replay will be available for a limited time at the same address. ABOUT ISIS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.Isis is exploiting its leadership position in antisense technology to discover and develop novel drugs for its product pipeline and for its partners.  Isis' broad pipeline consists of 25 drugs to treat a wide variety of diseases with an emphasis on cardiovascular, metabolic, severe and rare diseases, and cancer.