Alnylam, Sanofi Restructure RNAi Rare-Disease Alliance -- Update

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALNY) and Sanofi (SNY) on Sunday said they agreed to restructure their RNAi therapeutics alliance to streamline and optimize development of certain products for the treatment of rare genetic diseases.

As part of the restructuring, Cambridge, Mass., biopharmaceutical company Alnylam will obtain global development and commercialization rights to its investigational RNAi therapeutics programs for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis, including patisiran and ALN-TTRsc02, while Sanofi obtains global development and commercialization rights to fitusiran, an investigational therapeutic in development for the treatment of hemophilia A and B.

France's Sanofi will receive royalties based on net sales of the ATTR amyloidosis products, and Alnylam will receive royalties based on sales of fitusiran products.

The companies said terms of their 2014 agreement with respect to other products under the alliance are unchanged.

Alnylam said it is preparing for the launch of patisiran in mid-2018 in the U.S. and late 2018 in Europe. Patisiran is currently under regulatory review for the treatment of hATTR amyloidosis, an inherited, progressive disease caused by a genetic mutation that can result in the formation of amyloid deposits in the heart, nerves and gastrointestinal tract.

The company also said it expects to end 2017 with more than $1.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities and restricted cash.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 07, 2018 16:22 ET (21:22 GMT)