Alnylam and Novartis extend RNAi partnership - Boston Business Journal:

oc697vot.blogspot.com
The partnership, meant to discover, develo and and commercialize RNAi-based therapeutics towar a defined numberof Novartis-selected disease gene is now set to run throughg Oct. 2010. Cambridge-based Alnylam (Nasdaq: ALNY) said this will be the fiftgh and final year ofthe project. This is the second time Alnyla extended the partnershipwith Switzerland-based Novartis. The deal with Novartiw (NYSE: NVS) is worth more than $700 million to Alnylam assuminyg their research leads tocommercialp products. Scientists believe that which occurs naturallywithin cells, can be harnessed to silence genesd that cause disease.
With the extensio n of the alliance term, Novartis will continuew to fund collaboration research and development efforts conducteeby Alnylam. Further, Novartis retains certain rightes to purchase Alnylam equity up to its currentownershipo level, which is approximately 13.4