Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Alnylam wins $20M payment from partner Takeda

By Mass High Tech Staff

RNAi biotech company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. received a $20 million milestone payment from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., adding to the $100 million the Cambridge-based biotech has earned already from Takeda. The deal has the potential to reach up to $1 billion for Alnylam and the company anticipates an additional $30 million in relation to this specific technology transfer, Alnylam said.

The two companies formed a partnership in May 2008 allowing Takeda to utilize Alnylam’s RNAi therapeutics technology and specific rights to intellectual property in the areas of metabolic and cancer diseases. Alnylam (Nasdaq: ALNY) will also share its research and development process and its RNAi knowledge base.

Alnylam was given “opt-in rights to co-develop and co-commercialize” the Japanese pharmaceutical company’s drug program using its technology in the U.S. It also includes further collaborations and cross-license agreements on specific targets.

In June, the Cambridge-based biotech made a similar deal with a different Japanese pharmaceutical firm. Through that agreement it will receive as much as $93 million from Tokyo-based Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. Ltd. to develop and market an RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic for a respiratory virus infection.

The compound is in Phase 2 clinical development for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus infection. The agreement with Kyowa Hakko is for rights in Japan and other major markets in Asia.

Kyowa Hakko will pay Alnylam $15 million in an upfront cash payment and up to $78 million more in development and sales milestone payments. Once a drug reaches the market, Alnylam will get double-digit royalties from Kyowa Hakko based on the sales of ALN-RSV01 in Asia. Alnylam keeps all development and commercialization rights worldwide outside of Asia.

With 129 employees as of March 2008, Alnylam reported a 2007 net loss of $85.5 million on revenue of $50.9 million.