December 18, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Carlsbad, Calif.-based Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it is officially changing its name and NASDAQ ticker symbol to Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IONS). The new ticker symbol will become effective at the open of the market on Dec. 22.
The company has been contemplating the change for a while, but the issue came to a head in late November after the Middle Eastern terrorist organization that is called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or sometimes the Islamic State (IS), attacked Paris. Some governments sometimes refer to the organization as Daesh or Da-ish, which is the Arabic equivalent.
On Nov. 13, terrorists affiliated with Daesh coordinated multiple attacks in Paris, killing 130 people, with 368 injured. More recently, two people with alleged, but not confirmed ties to Daesh, in San Bernardino, Calif. opened fire at a holiday party, killing 14 and injuring 22. On Dec. 16, the FBI indicated there was no evidence connecting the San Bernardino shooting to ISIS (the terrorist organization), although the media had previously reported it being the case. So far the FBI is indicating that what the two San Bernardino shooters, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, had in connection to ISIS were direct social media messages to each other.
Nonetheless, the company has apparently given into the negative connotations and changed its name. Isis, now Ionis, focuses on the development of drugs for cancer, heart disease and neurological disorders. On Nov. 10, Ionis announced it had earned a $2.8 million milestone payment from Biogen, Inc. related to its ongoing Phase I/IIa study of ISIS-DMPK-2.5Rx for patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). It also announced on Nov. 5 that it was starting a Phase III study to evaluate volanesorsen in patients with familial partial lipodystrophy (FPL).
“Our goal is to create medicines that will save patients’ lives, and we are proud to be at the forefront of creating innovative medicines,” said Lynn Parshall, Ionis’s chief operating officer, in a statement. “We decided to change our company name because, when people see or hear our name, we want them to think about the life-saving medicines we are developing.”
It is also changing its website address to www.ionispharma.com.
Isis, originally, was the Egyptian goddess of health, marriage and wisdom. There is no connection between her and the Middle Eastern terrorist organization. Ionis, pronounced eye-Oh-nis, says it, “is an original name that the Company has chosen to represent its innovative culture and heritage as both the pioneer and leader in the RNA-targeted therapeutic space for the past 26 years.”
A quick Google search does indicate the existence of an IONIS Education Group, a Greek hotel, an international business training program, and a level in the online game World of Warfare with the name or acronym Ionis.
