CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that it has initiated a Phase IIb trial in adult lung transplant patients with ALN-RSV01, an RNAi therapeutic for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. RSV infection in lung transplant patients represents an important unmet medical need; the condition is associated with significant morbidity, including the development of acute lung transplant rejection in 10% to 20% of infected patients. Lung transplant patients infected with RSV are also at risk for an increase in frequency of new or progressive bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), a life-threatening complication representing an irreversible disease of the transplanted lung resulting in approximately 50% mortality within three to five years of onset.
