Alnylam Granted Summary Judgment by United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Tuschl II Patent Invent...
September 28 2015 - 2:47PM
Business Wire
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi
therapeutics company, announced today that Chief Judge Patti B.
Saris of the United States District Court for the District of
Massachusetts granted Alnylam’s summary judgment motion in an
inventorship dispute, holding that Professor Brenda Bass,
Distinguished Professor at the University of Utah (“Utah”), is not
a co-inventor of certain patents, termed the Tuschl II patents,
jointly owned by co-defendants the Max Planck Society (“Max
Planck”), University of Massachusetts (“UMass”), Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (“MIT”), and the Whitehead Institute for
Biomedical Research (“Whitehead”), and exclusively licensed to
Alnylam.
“We are pleased with the Court’s ruling which affirms our
finding that Dr. Bass did not make an inventive contribution to the
Tuschl II patents,” said David-Alexandre “DA” Gros, M.D., Senior
Vice President, Chief Business Officer of Alnylam.
In 2011 Utah sued Alnylam, Max Planck, UMass, MIT, and Whitehead
alleging that Dr. Bass was either the sole or a co-inventor of the
Tuschl II patents, seeking correction of inventorship as well as
unspecified monetary damages. In 2015 Utah dropped their sole
inventorship claim. The Court found that there was no collaboration
between Dr. Bass and Dr. Tuschl, which is a pre-requisite for
co-inventorship, and also granted the defendants’ motion for
summary judgment on Utah’s state law claims. While Utah can appeal
this ruling, Alnylam remains firm in its belief that the
inventorship of the Tuschl II patents as stated in the issued
patents is correct.
About RNAiRNAi (RNA interference) is a revolution in
biology, representing a breakthrough in understanding how genes are
turned on and off in cells, and a completely new approach to drug
discovery and development. Its discovery has been heralded as “a
major scientific breakthrough that happens once every decade or
so,” and represents one of the most promising and rapidly advancing
frontiers in biology and drug discovery today which was awarded the
2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. RNAi is a natural
process of gene silencing that occurs in organisms ranging from
plants to mammals. By harnessing the natural biological process of
RNAi occurring in our cells, the creation of a major new class of
medicines, known as RNAi therapeutics, is on the horizon. Small
interfering RNA (siRNA), the molecules that mediate RNAi and
comprise Alnylam's RNAi therapeutic platform, target the cause of
diseases by potently silencing specific mRNAs, thereby preventing
disease-causing proteins from being made. RNAi therapeutics have
the potential to treat disease and help patients in a fundamentally
new way.
About Alnylam PharmaceuticalsAlnylam is a
biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on
RNA interference, or RNAi. The company is leading the translation
of RNAi as a new class of innovative medicines. Alnylam’s pipeline
of investigational RNAi therapeutics is focused in 3 Strategic
Therapeutic Areas (STArs): Genetic Medicines, with a broad pipeline
of RNAi therapeutics for the treatment of rare diseases;
Cardio-Metabolic Disease, with a pipeline of RNAi therapeutics
toward genetically validated, liver-expressed disease targets for
unmet needs in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases; and Hepatic
Infectious Disease, with a pipeline of RNAi therapeutics that
address the major global health challenges of hepatic infectious
diseases. In early 2015, Alnylam launched its “Alnylam 2020”
guidance for the advancement and commercialization of RNAi
therapeutics as a whole new class of innovative medicines.
Specifically, by the end of 2020, Alnylam expects to achieve a
company profile with 3 marketed products, 10 RNAi therapeutic
clinical programs – including 4 in late stages of development –
across its 3 STArs. The company’s demonstrated commitment to RNAi
therapeutics has enabled it to form major alliances with leading
companies including Merck, Medtronic, Novartis, Biogen, Roche,
Takeda, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Cubist, GlaxoSmithKline, Ascletis,
Monsanto, The Medicines Company, and Genzyme, a Sanofi company. In
addition, Alnylam holds an equity position in Regulus Therapeutics
Inc., a company focused on discovery, development, and
commercialization of microRNA therapeutics. Alnylam scientists and
collaborators have published their research on RNAi therapeutics in
over 200 peer-reviewed papers, including many in the world’s top
scientific journals such as Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature
Biotechnology, Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, and The
Lancet. Founded in 2002, Alnylam maintains headquarters in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information about Alnylam’s
pipeline of investigational RNAi therapeutics, please visit
www.alnylam.com.
Alnylam Forward Looking StatementsVarious statements in
this release concerning Alnylam's future expectations, plans and
prospects, including without limitation, Alnylam's views with
respect to the potential for RNAi therapeutics, its beliefs
regarding the inventorship of the Tuschl II patents, its
expectations regarding its STAr pipeline growth strategy, and its
plans regarding commercialization of RNAi therapeutics, constitute
forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor
provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by
these forward-looking statements as a result of various important
factors, including, without limitation, Alnylam's ability to
discover and develop novel drug candidates and delivery approaches,
successfully demonstrate the efficacy and safety of its drug
candidates, the pre-clinical and clinical results for its product
candidates, which may not be replicated or continue to occur in
other subjects or in additional studies or otherwise support
further development of product candidates, actions of regulatory
agencies, which may affect the initiation, timing and progress of
clinical trials, obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual
property, Alnylam's ability to enforce its patents against
infringers and defend its patent portfolio against challenges from
third parties, obtaining regulatory approval for products,
competition from others using technology similar to Alnylam's and
others developing products for similar uses, Alnylam's ability to
manage operating expenses, Alnylam's ability to obtain additional
funding to support its business activities and establish and
maintain strategic business alliances and new business initiatives,
Alnylam's dependence on third parties for development, manufacture,
marketing, sales and distribution of products, the outcome of
litigation, and unexpected expenditures, as well as those risks
more fully discussed in the "Risk Factors" filed with Alnylam's
most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and in other
filings that Alnylam makes with the SEC. In addition, any
forward-looking statements represent Alnylam's views only as of
today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of
any subsequent date. Alnylam explicitly disclaims any obligation to
update any forward-looking statements.
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150928006487/en/
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Michael Mason,
617-551-8327Vice President, Finance and TreasurerorSpectrumLiz
Bryan (Media), 202-955-6222 x2526
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024