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Cambridge RNAi-focused biotech Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. is planning to cut up to 30 percent of its workforce as the company completes the last year of a five-year alliance with Novartis.
The layoffs are expected to save Alnylam about $25 million in operating expenses next year. The company noted that it plans to end 2010 with more than $325 million in cash.
In conjunction with its layoff news, Alnylam announced that Novartis has chosen its final list of 31 drug targets, using Alnylam intellectual property and technology, that it will develop and commercialize under the alliance. The developments open up Alnylam to receive milestone payments.
Alnylam (Nasdaq: ALNY) and Novartis (NYSE: NVS) first entered into the multiyear alliance in 2005 with the goal of developing treatment for disease gene targets outlined by Novartis. Originally, the collaboration had an three-year term that could be extended for two additional one-year periods. In July 2009, Novartis opted to extend the collaboration for the last of its possible five-year deal. In 2005, the deal outlined that if the collaboration brought out multiple developed and commercialized projects, Alnylam could stand to receive more than $700 million in payments, not including royalties, the two companies said at the time.
Novartis has a 13.4 percent ownership stake in Alnylam.
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