Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALNY) announced that Genzyme, the specialty care global business unit of Sanofi (PA:SASY) (NYSE:SNY) , has elected to opt in to co-develop and co-commercialize fitusiran in the United States, Canada and Western Europe.
Notably, Fitusiran is an investigational RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic being developed for the treatment of hemophilia and rare bleeding disorders (RBD).
This expanded right follows Genzyme’s October 2015 decision to opt in to develop and commercialize fitusiran in their rest of world territories.
The companies formed a global alliance in Jan 2014.
The decision to opt in was based on the latest interim clinical results from a phase I study of fitusiran which was presented at the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) in July. Supplementary data on fitusiran will be presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in December. Alnylam plans to initiate the fitusiran phase III program in early 2017.
This development-stage biopharmaceutical company is focused on the development of novel therapeutics based on RNAi. Other than Sanofi, the company’s core RNAi technology has allowed it to ink collaborations with leading pharmaceutical and life sciences companies like Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) , Roche Holding (SIX:ROG) AG (OTC:RHHBY) and Monsanto (NYSE:MON) for Alnylam’s further development and utilization. To promote broader use of the company’s technology, Alnylam is also stepping beyond its primary focus area. These deals not only provide it with funds but also take its RNAi technology outside its main area of focus.
Alnylam and Sanofi both currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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