Alnylam Gets $2 Billion from Blackstone for RNAi Therapeutics

Private equity firm Blackstone and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals have entered into a broad strategic collaboration under which Blackstone will provide up to $2 billion to support Alnylam’s advancement of innovative RNA interference (RNAi) medicines that have the potential to address a range of debilitating diseases. The deal is anchored by Blackstone’s purchase of 50 percent of the royalties owed to Alnylam on global sales of inclisiran, an investigational RNAi therapeutic for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia, currently under review by the FDA. If approved, inclisiran is expected to help patients lower LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

The strategic financing collaboration, led by Blackstone Life Sciences and GSO Capital Partners, Blackstone’s credit platform, is expected to enable Alnylam’s achievement of a self-sustainable financial profile without need for future equity financing, accelerating the commercial potential of Alnylam’s rapidly advancing product portfolio. The investment by multiple Blackstone businesses is one of the largest ever private financings of a biotech company.

Alnylam, an existing tenant of Blackstone Real Estate company BioMed Realty, is also in discussions with BioMed to expand its footprint in Cambridge, MA.

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.

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 Website, 13 April, 2020)