Jan 7 2010
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi
therapeutics company, announced today that it has received a milestone
payment from its partner Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) related to
initiation of pre-IND (investigational new drug application) studies for
an RNAi therapeutics product candidate. Financial terms of the milestone
were not disclosed.
“Since the start of our
collaboration with Roche in 2007, we have been impressed with the high
quality of their work and the rapid progress they have made in advancing
this novel class of innovative medicines to patients. We look forward to
continued success in their efforts.”
“We are excited by the progress our partner Roche is making in
developing their own portfolio of RNAi therapeutics based on Alnylam
technology and intellectual property,” said Barry Greene, President and
Chief Operating Officer of Alnylam. “Since the start of our
collaboration with Roche in 2007, we have been impressed with the high
quality of their work and the rapid progress they have made in advancing
this novel class of innovative medicines to patients. We look forward to
continued success in their efforts.”
In July 2007, Alnylam granted to Roche a non-exclusive license providing
access to broad Alnylam intellectual property (IP) and know-how,
including fundamental, chemistry and delivery IP, in the fields of
oncology, respiratory disease, metabolic disease, and certain liver
diseases. As part of the agreement, Roche also acquired Alnylam’s
Kulmbach-based research & development (R&D) organization which has now
become Roche Kulmbach, a Roche Centre of Excellence for RNA
therapeutics. In addition, Alnylam and Roche agreed to collaborate on
RNAi therapeutics drug discovery for a defined number of disease
targets, subject to certain Alnylam third party obligations. The drug
discovery stage of the collaboration was initiated in November 2009.
http://www.alnylam.com/