Tuesday, January 20, 2009

European Patent Office rules against Alnylam

By Mass High Tech staff

Cambridge RNAi therapeutics development firm Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. has announced that the European Patent Office has ruled against the company relating to a specific RNAi-related patent (EP 1214945) in Alnylam’s Kreutzer-Limmer patent estate. The company expects to appeal the ruling, according to a statement by Alnylam president and chief operating officer Barry Greene.

Other aspects of the Kreutzer-Limmer patent series were not affected by the ruling, and Alnylam (Nasdaq: ALNY) officials have said that they expect future patents will be granted. This patent series includes some siRNAs with varying nucleotide lengths.

Parts of the Kreutzer-Limmer patent series have been granted in Germany and other countries, while the U.S., Japan and other nations have the patents currently pending.

Alnylam has 700 issued or granted patents globally, from an active patent case collection of 1,800.

In December, Alnylam said it had purchased more than 100 active patent filings in the field of RNAi from Langhorne, Pa.-based Nucleonics Inc., a privately-held biotech company. Of those patents, 16 have been granted worldwide and six have been granted in the U.S., the European Union, and Japan. The Nucleonics portfolio includes some early RNAi therapeutics patents and patent applications, such as the “Giordano” patent families. These extend Alnylam’s existing IP, which is comprised of the Crooke, Fire & Mello, Kreutzer-Limmer, Glover, Tuschl I, Tuschl II, Hannon, and Kay patent families.