Io­n­is and Akcea get their shot at com­pet­ing with Al­ny­lam for a rare dis­ease group — but it’s not ex­pect­ed to be pret­ty

Io­n­is $IONS and Akcea $AK­CA have been giv­en a green light to go head-to-head in­to a mar­ket­ing fight with Al­ny­lam for treat­ing ex­treme­ly rare cas­es of TTR amy­loi­do­sis — with one arm tied be­hind their back on ef­fi­ca­cy and both com­mer­cial feet hob­bled by a wor­ri­some safe­ty is­sue.

Akcea — a spin­out from Io­n­is, which still con­trols a ma­jor­i­ty of the com­pa­ny — put out the word of the de­layed OK for Tegse­di (in­ot­ersen) on Fri­day night, which comes af­ter a reg­u­la­to­ry de­lay that put them one step be­hind the com­pe­ti­tion. 

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