Alnylam Expects to Launch First RNAi Drug in mid-2018

Leading RNAi therapeutics company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals recently announced its corporate goals for 2018. The goals focus on clinical and regulatory progress against its five mid- to late-stage programs, including patisiran, which is advancing toward potential global regulatory approvals and commercialization.

“In the year ahead, we look forward to the potential global commercial launch of patisiran, the first-ever RNAi therapeutic to enter the market, marking the birth of a whole new class of medicines with the potential to transform the treatment of diseases with high unmet need. Together with the advancements made in our other late-stage programs, we now look forward to our transition from a development-stage company toward a multi-product, global commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company with a deep and sustainable pipeline and research engine,” said John Maraganore, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Alnylam.

RNAi (RNA interference) is a natural cellular process of gene silencing that represents one of the most promising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and drug development today. Its discovery has been heralded as “a major scientific breakthrough that happens once every decade or so,” and was recognized with the award of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. By harnessing the natural biological process of RNAi occurring in our cells, a major new class of medicines, known as RNAi therapeutics, is on the horizon. Small interfering RNA (siRNA), the molecules that mediate RNAi and comprise Alnylam’s RNAi therapeutic platform, function upstream of today’s medicines by potently silencing messenger RNA (mRNA) – the genetic precursors – that encode for disease-causing proteins, thus preventing them from being made. This is a revolutionary approach with the potential to transform the care of patients with genetic and other diseases. (Source: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Website, 07 January, 2018)