UPDATE: J.P. Morgan Initiates Coverage on Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

According to a research report published this morning, J.P. Morgan has initiated Alnylam Pharmaceuticals ALNY with an Overweight rating and $15 PT. J.P. Morgan said in the report, "Alnylam is an early stage biotech company that focuses on development of therapeutics based on RNA interference (RNAi). The core strategy for the company is called the “Alnylam 5X15,” program which focuses on 5 key products expected to be in clinical development by 2015. The lead program, ALN-TTR (TTR02), will be in phase 3 development in 2013 for an orphan disease called transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (TTR), specifically a subset of patients with familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP) and we estimate a peak WW opportunity of ~$900M. We believe the next meaningful catalysts for the program will be TTR02 phase 1 data, which based on physician feedback, has a good chance of showing better transthyretin (TTR) knockdown compared to the first generation TTR01." Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is currently trading at $10.19.