Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi
therapeutics company, and KOKEN Co., Ltd., a leading atelocollagen
company, announced today that Alnylam has granted KOKEN a non-exclusive
worldwide license to manufacture and provide RNAi research products and
services under the Kreutzer-Limmer patent family. This patent family,
owned exclusively by Alnylam, covers fundamental aspects of the
structure and uses of RNAi products, including small interfering RNAs
(siRNAs) and their use to mediate RNAi in mammalian cells, and of
RNAi-related mechanisms.
"We are pleased to grant KOKEN a license to manufacture and provide
siRNA reagents to its industry and academic customers around the world
for research purposes,” said Jason Rhodes, Vice President of Business
Development at Alnylam. "This new agreement continues to underscore the
value of the Kreutzer-Limmer patent family as a critical component of
fundamental intellectual property in the field of RNAi. With more than
15 license agreements with global research product suppliers, including
five in the Asian markets alone, we believe the vast majority of
industrial sales of RNAi products for research purposes are currently
being made under a license from Alnylam."
"This new agreement with Alnylam enhances our ability to become a
leading global supplier of innovative RNAi reagent products in Japan and
worldwide,” said Yuzo Tarumi, Ph.D., President of KOKEN. "Access to the
Kreutzer-Limmer patent estate enables us to augment our current RNAi
products, thereby strengthening our position in the life sciences
marketplace.”
Alnylam’s intellectual property estate includes certain fundamental
patents and patent applications, including the Kreutzer-Limmer I and II
patents, which claim the broad structural and functional properties of
synthetic RNAi products.
About RNA Interference (RNAi)
1BRNAi (RNA interference) is a revolution in biology, representing a
breakthrough in understanding how genes are turned on and off in cells,
and a completely new approach to drug discovery and development. Its
discovery has been heralded as "a major scientific breakthrough that
happens once every decade or so,” and represents one of the most
promising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and drug discovery
today which was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
RNAi is a natural process of gene silencing that occurs in organisms
ranging from plants to mammals. By harnessing the natural biological
process of RNAi occurring in our cells, the creation of a major new
class of medicines, known as RNAi therapeutics, is on the horizon. Small
interfering RNAs (siRNAs), the molecules that mediate RNAi and comprise
Alnylam’s RNAi therapeutic platform, target the cause of diseases by
potently silencing specific mRNAs, thereby preventing disease-causing
proteins from being made. RNAi therapeutics have the potential to treat
disease and help patients in a fundamentally new way.
About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
Alnylam is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics
based on RNA interference, or RNAi. The company is applying its
therapeutic expertise in RNAi to address significant medical needs, many
of which cannot effectively be addressed with small molecules or
antibodies, the current major classes of drugs. Alnylam is leading the
translation of RNAi as a new class of innovative medicines with
peer-reviewed research efforts published in the world’s top scientific
journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, and Cell.
The company is leveraging these capabilities to build a broad pipeline
of RNAi therapeutics; its most advanced program is in Phase II human
clinical trials for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
infection and is partnered with Cubist and Kyowa Hakko. In addition, the
company is developing RNAi therapeutics for the treatment of a wide
range of disease areas, including liver cancers, hypercholesterolemia,
Huntington’s disease, and TTR amyloidosis. The company’s leadership
position in fundamental patents, technology, and know-how relating to
RNAi has enabled it to form major alliances with leading companies
including Medtronic, Novartis, Biogen Idec, Roche, Takeda, Kyowa Hakko,
and Cubist. To reflect its outlook for key scientific, clinical, and
business initiatives, Alnylam established "RNAi 2010” in January
2008 which includes the company’s plan to significantly expand the scope
of delivery solutions for RNAi therapeutics, have four or more programs
in clinical development, and to form four or more new major business
collaborations, all by the end of 2010. Alnylam is a joint owner of
Regulus Therapeutics, a joint venture focused on the discovery,
development, and commercialization of microRNA therapeutics. Founded in
2002, Alnylam maintains headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For
more information, please visit http://Hwww.alnylam.com.
About KOKEN
Koken is a leading company in atelocollagen and celebrated the Golden
Anniversary of the founding this year. Koken’s unique technology using
proteolytic enzyme yields water-soluble collagen, atelocollagen.
Atelocollagen has extremely low antigenicity and is remarkably
compatible with and stable to other material. Koken has also found
applications of atelocollagen in various types of drug delivery systems
(DDS), especially for nucleic acid. Based on this character of
atelocollagen, Koken has launched in vivo siRNA transfection kit for
research use "AteloGene®” worldwide. In addition, Koken is
selling high-quality siRNA for research use, "AteloSiLence®”
in Japan. Koken has headquarters in Mejiro, Tokyo. For more information,
please visit http://www.kokenmpc.co.jp.
Alnylam Forward-Looking Statement
Various statements in this release concerning Alnylam’s future
expectations, plans and prospects, constitute forward-looking statements
for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ
materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a
result of various important factors, including the company's ability to
successfully research and develop products and to successfully prosecute
and enforce its patents around the world, as well as those risks more
fully discussed in the "Risk Factors” section of its most recent
quarterly report on Form 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent
Alnylam’s views only as of today and should not be relied upon as
representing its views as of any subsequent date. Alnylam does not
assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
