MINNEAPOLIS & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Medtronic, Inc., (NYSE: MDT) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that the companies are advancing their collaboration initiated in February, 2005, following positive pre-clinical data generated under the initial joint technology development phase of the program.
Under the terms of the agreement, Alnylam and Medtronic will focus on developing a drug-device combination for the treatment of Huntington’s disease. The product is expected to consist of an RNAi therapeutic targeting the Huntington’s disease gene that will be delivered by Medtronic’s implantable infusion pump. In addition, the companies may jointly decide to collaborate on the development of similar drug-device combinations using Alnylam’s RNAi therapeutics platform and Medtronic’s implantable infusion pump for the treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.
