Alnylam Advances RNAi Therapeutic Collaboration With Roche

Alnylam has advanced the RNAi therapeutic collaboration stage of its alliance with Roche formed in 2007. In this phase of the collaboration, the partners are expected to jointly collaborate on the discovery and development of specific RNAi therapeutic products and each will contribute key delivery technologies in the new disease target-focused effort.

The new delivery technologies include Alnylam’s lipid nanoparticles and Roche’s Madison dynamic polyconjugate delivery technologies. Alnylam and Roche will co-develop and co-commercialise RNAi therapeutic products in the US market and Alnylam is eligible to receive additional milestone and royalty payments for products developed in the rest of world.

Barry Greene, president and chief operating officer of Alnylam, said: “We are excited to advance to this phase of our 2007 agreement, as our joint efforts combine many strengths of the Alnylam and Roche platforms on specific disease target programs. Our partnership with Roche remains very strong and we look forward to working together to bring our innovation to patients.”

Louis Renzetti, vice president of RNA therapeutics research at Roche, said: “Since the formation of our alliance with Alnylam and the establishment of Roche Kulmbach and Roche Madison as Centers of Excellence for RNA therapeutic research, we have made significant progress in advancing this technology as a potential new class of innovative medicines. We continue to view RNAi as having true potential as a whole new class of differentiated drugs to benefit patients.”