Isis Pharmaceuticals To Receive $1.1 Million From Alnylam

Isis Pharmaceuticals

announced today that it will receive $1.1 million from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

as its portion of the upfront fees in Alnylam's recently announced collaboration with Genzyme. In addition, Isis has the potential to receive royalty payments and a portion of future milestone payments. Already this year, Isis has earned $2.7 million from Alnylam as a result of Alnylam's licenses that were supported by Isis' patents, further emphasizing the value of Isis' innovation and the leadership role Isis has played in the field of RNA-based technology. "We have a broad and valuable patent estate built upon our innovations and discoveries related to RNA-based technologies that provides us with extensive protection for our drugs and our technologies. Our business strategy maximizes the value of these innovations by granting partners access to our technology for uses that are outside our key areas of focus. Using this strategy, we have been able to generate more than $400 million from the sale and licensing of our intellectual property," said B. Lynne Parshall, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Isis. Isis is the leading company in RNA-based technology and owns or controls more than 1,500 issued patents. As such, Isis holds patents for numerous applications of antisense technology, including RNAi, and for novel targets, such as microRNAs being developed by Regulus, which was co-founded by Isis and Alnylam. In 2004, Isis and Alnylam entered into a strategic relationship in which Alnylam obtained an exclusive license to Isis' intellectual property for double-stranded oligonucleotide therapeutics that mediate RNAi. In return, Isis received an upfront payment and financial participation in future transactions supported by Isis' patents.