The company said that it expects to submit an investigational new drug application for an RNAi therapeutic for the treatment of pandemic flu as early as the end of 2006.
“We believe that RNAi therapeutics can play an important role in effective preparedness for a global influenza pandemic, providing a new option for the treatment and prevention of highly virulent strains of flu,” said Dr John Maraganore, president and CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.
The Alnylam pandemic flu program is focused on the development of an RNAi therapeutic targeting sequences that are highly conserved across all flu genomes, including those of avian origin such as the H5N1 strain. This RNAi therapeutic would be expected to have anti-viral activity against any newly emerging strain of influenza that could cause human disease.