ISIS Pharma Trades Up Premarket; NYT Says Has Potential Heart Attack Drug

Isis Pharmaceuticals ISIS gained more than four percent in pre-market trading after information related to its pipeline drug for lowering triglycerides landed on the New York Times' front page.

The story focused on independent research that identified mutations in a single gene that maintains low levels of trigyclerides - and thus may protect against heart attacks.

This could lead to a new class of drugs, the potential market for which might be three percent to 20 percent of all Americans, the article said.

The Times confirmed that ISIS has such a drug in development, but lacks the resources for necessary large scale testing.

“It is the most important drug in our pipeline,” said ISIS Chief Executive Stanley Crooke told the Times “Trust me, these data are really exciting.”

Unmentioned by the Times is that for other drugs in its pipeline, ISIS has development partnerships with much larger companies, including GlaxoSmithKline GSK, Biogen Idec BIIB and several others.

ISIS was changing hands premarket at $35.20 a share, up 4.36 percent.