Can Brett Mo­nia push Io­n­is be­yond Spin­raza?

For 30 years, Brett Mo­nia strug­gled as one of Io­n­is’ top sci­en­tists to get their an­ti­sense tech­nol­o­gy to work. Now, as CEO, he’s try­ing to use it to turn Io­n­is in­to one of the in­dus­try’s biggest biotechs.

Mo­nia, one of the hand­ful of young sci­en­tists who in 1989 fol­lowed Stan­ley Crooke across the coun­try from SmithK­line (now GSK) in Philadel­phia to found Io­n­is in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia, re­placed Crooke as CEO last Jan­u­ary. By then, they had proven an­ti­sense, an RNA-based method for ma­nip­u­lat­ing gene ex­pres­sion, could work dra­mat­i­cal­ly well in at least some in­stances, trans­form­ing spinal mus­cu­lar at­ro­phy with the Bio­gen-part­nered block­buster Spin­raza.

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