Ionis Enters into Collaboration with Seventh Sense Biosystems to Support Development of Improved Blood Collection and Diagnostic Device

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IONS) announced today that it has entered a collaboration with Seventh Sense Biosystems, Inc. (7SBio), a private medical device company developing TAP™, a novel, push-button, blood collection device to make blood testing more convenient and virtually painless. As part of its commitment to the collaboration, Ionis has made a strategic investment of $2 million in 7SBio as part of a Series C financing that will also include other investors.

7SBio aims to create a new standard for blood collection that increases patient compliance with blood testing by improving patients' experience with blood collection, leading to faster diagnoses and better outcomes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved TAP for the collection of blood by a health care worker for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measurement. The company plans to include broader tests and allow for self-collection in the future.

"7SBio has attracted world-class investors and is developing innovative devices we believe could revolutionize the way blood is collected. We believe that our collaboration and strategic investment in 7SBio will help provide additional resources and expertise to optimize the development of these novel devices," said B. Lynne Parshall, chief operating officer at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. "These new devices can improve patients' experience with blood testing by making the whole procedure fast, easy and painless, and is one of several approaches we are pursuing to make platelet monitoring more convenient for patients."

"We are excited to have Ionis as a partner in developing our TAP devices for blood testing. We believe that these devices can transform the diagnostics industry by enabling patients to collect a high-quality blood sample anywhere," said Howard Weisman, chief executive officer of Seventh Sense Biosystems.