Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Earns $20 Million Payment from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY - News), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, today announced that it has earned a $20 million technology transfer milestone payment from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited as part of the strategic alliance the companies formed in May 2008. This payment is related to the transfer of Alnylam’s platform technology, including documents, materials, and know-how, to Takeda for the development of RNAi therapeutics. Alnylam has already received a $100 million upfront payment from Takeda upon deal execution. Upon earning this $20 million, there remains an additional $30 million in expected near-term technology transfer milestone payments.
“We are excited about the progress we have already made in enabling Takeda with Alnylam RNAi drug discovery capabilities and intellectual property,” said Barry Greene, President and Chief Operating Officer at Alnylam. “We look forward to continuing our efforts in this strategic collaboration which is focused on advancing the development of RNAi therapeutics on a global basis, including Alnylam’s right to co-develop and co-commercialize certain Takeda RNAi therapeutic products in the U.S. market.”
The Alnylam-Takeda alliance, which is valued at potentially over $1 billion, represents the first major RNAi therapeutics partnership between a Japanese pharmaceutical company and a U.S. biotechnology company. The agreement provides Takeda with broad, worldwide, non-exclusive access to and enablement with Alnylam’s RNAi therapeutics platform technology and intellectual property in the fields of oncology and metabolic disease, with the right to expand the number of therapeutic fields in the future. In addition, it includes a collaboration and cross-license of delivery technologies between the two companies, and a drug discovery collaboration on certain RNAi targets. Alnylam also has opt-in rights to co-develop and co-commercialize Takeda RNAi therapeutic programs in the U.S. market on a 50-50 basis.
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. In addition, the company is developing RNAi therapeutics for the treatment of a wide range of disease areas, including liver cancers, hypercholesterolemia, and Huntington’s disease. 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, and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo. To reflect its outlook for key scientific, clinical, and business initiatives, Alnylam has established “RNAi 2010” 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 LLC, 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, visit www.alnylam.com.
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 risks related to the likelihood of Alnylam’s successfully achieving additional milestones, including technology transfer milestones, under its agreement with Takeda, 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.
Contact:
Investors Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Cynthia Clayton, 617-551-8207 or Media Yates Public Relations Kathryn Morris, 845-635-9828
Source: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.