Alnylam, Merck dump RNAi deal

A little more than a year after revising their RNAi development deal to include $120 million in milestone payments, Alnylam says it is fundamentally in its best interests to terminate the pact with Merck. After they amended that deal last summer, Merck bought Sirna Therapeutics for $1.1 billion, which put Merck directly into the RNAi space. Alnylam has other partnerships still in the works with Novartis and Biogen Idec, and it recently formed a new company with Isis Pharmaceuticals to focus on developing new drugs based on micro-RNA. Investors and analysts alike were quick to applaud the move, sending Alnylam's shares up sharply.

- check out Alnylam's release on the decision
- read the report from MassHighTech

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