Alnylam wins $38.6M US biodefense contract

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a US RNAi therapeutics specialist, has been awarded a $38.6 million contract over 33 months from the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency to develop a broad-spectrum RNAi antiviral therapeutic for viral hemorrhagic fever. This group of diseases are considered by federal agencies to be high priority agents that pose a risk to national security because they can be easily disseminated from person to person, result in high mortality rates and also require special action for public health preparedness.

The Alnylam Biodefense initiative has the potential to create near-term value from the company's RNAi therapeutic platform, such as obtaining US Food and Drug Administration approval for products in an accelerated timeframe and revenues from government stockpiling. In addition, funding from this initiative allows Alnylam to further extend its capabilities in a manner that can be leveraged across its entire proprietary and partnered pipeline, the firm noted.

Barry Greene, the company's chief operating officer, said that, "combined with our Ebola contract from the National Institutes of Health for $23.0 million awarded in September 2006 and other sources of federal funding, we have now been granted more than $63.0 million in federal contracts for Alnylam Biodefense."