Alnylam Earns $7 Mln Milestone Payment From Genzyme On Patisiran Achievement

(RTTNews) - Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALNY) announced Monday that it has earned a $7 million milestone from its partner Genzyme, a Sanofi (SNY) company, for achieving Phase II success with patisiran or ALN-TTR02.

Recently, Alnylam presented positive Phase II results at the IXth International Symposium on Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy or ISFAP held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 10 - 13.

Results showed that multiple doses of patisiran led to robust and statistically significant knockdown of serum TTR protein levels of up to 96%, with mean levels of TTR knockdown exceeding 85%.

Knockdown of TTR, the disease-causing protein in ATTR, was found to be rapid, dose dependent, and durable, and similar activity was observed toward both wild-type and mutant protein. In addition, patisiran was found to be generally safe and well tolerated in this study. Alnylam has also recently initiated its APOLLO Phase III trial of patisiran in ATTR patients with FAP, with the study now open for enrollment.

In 2012, Alnylam entered into an exclusive alliance with Genzyme, a Sanofi company, to develop and commercialize RNAi therapeutics, including patisiran and ALN-TTRsc, for the treatment of ATTR in Japan and the broader Asian-Pacific region. Alnylam plans to develop and commercialize the ALN-TTR program in North and South America, Europe, and rest of the world.