Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Receives Allowance from European Patent Office for Tuschl II Patent, Exclusively Licensed from Max Planck Society

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & MUNICH, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that a key fundamental patent from its exclusively held “Tuschl II” patent estate has received Rule 51(4) EPC notification from the European Patent Office (EPO); this notification is equivalent to a “Notice of Allowance” by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It is expected that the patent will be granted by the EPO within the next six months. The European patent (EP 1407044 or “’044 Patent”) broadly covers compositions, methods, and uses of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), the molecules that mediate RNAi. Alnylam also announced today that the Tuschl II patent has been granted in Australia (AU2002235744). The Tuschl II patent family is exclusively licensed to Alnylam for RNAi therapeutics on a worldwide basis through an agreement with Max Planck Innovation GmbH, the licensing agent for the Max Planck Society.