Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today its participation in a $2.4 million research grant awarded to the University of Pennsylvania under the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”. The new grant will fund research over two years in the laboratories of Daniel Rader, M.D. of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Sekar Kathiresan, M.D. of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School, and Alnylam.
The goal of this initiative is to mechanistically evaluate the metabolic and molecular effects of 38 novel genes implicated by human genetic studies in prevention of cardiovascular disease and to discover and develop RNAi therapeutics towards these gene candidates. Through an agreement with the University of Pennsylvania and MGH, Alnylam will retain the rights to develop and commercialize RNAi therapeutics from the research effort.
“We are excited to participate in this important work led by Dr. Dan Rader of the University of Pennsylvania, who is widely recognized for his outstanding work in lipid research and lipoprotein metabolism,” said Victor Kotelianski, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., Senior Vice President, Distinguished Alnylam Fellow. “We are also pleased to be collaborating in this research effort with Dr. Kathiresan of MGH, where we will be able to interrogate the findings of large-scale genome-wide association studies in cardiovascular disease, including genes associated with abnormal blood lipid levels and early onset myocardial infarction. As evidenced by our RNAi therapeutic program targeting PCSK9, cardiovascular disease remains an area of great interest for Alnylam as we believe there is significant potential for an RNAi therapeutic to make an impact in the lives of patients.”