Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced that the closing for its previously announced alliance with Roche was completed.
On July 9, 2007, Alnylam and Roche announced the signing of this alliance in which Roche has obtained a non-exclusive license to Alnylam's technology platform for developing RNAi therapeutics. Roche is required to make aggregate payments to Alnylam of approximately $331.0 million, including an upfront cash payment within ten business days of the closing in connection with the license.
The Roche Venture Fund purchased 1.975 million shares of Alnylam common stock for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $42.5 million. Roche also completed the acquisition of Alnylam's European research site located in Kulmbach, Germany (Bavaria).
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 influenza, hypercholesterolemia, and liver cancers, amongst other diseases.