Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Collaborators Publish New Pre-clinical Results with an RNAi Therapeutic Approach for Inducing Endogenous Erythropoiesis for the Treatment of Anemia

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced the publication of new pre-clinical results in the journal Blood (doi: 10.1182/blood-2012-04-423715) that describe targeting the egg-laying nine homolog (EglN) pathway for the treatment of anemia using RNAi therapeutics. The new findings show that activation of hepatic erythropoietin production using systemically delivered siRNA targeting EglN prolyl hydroxylases leads to improved red blood cell production in pre-clinical models of anemia. New approaches that induce endogenous mechanisms for erythropoiesis could address unmet medical needs in the management of anemia in patients who are refractive to current therapies.