Alnylam Initiates RNAi Therapeutic Program for Pandemic Influenza

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced a collaboration with researchers from the University of Georgia to discover and develop a Direct RNAi therapeutic for the treatment and prevention of respiratory infection from newly emerging, highly pathogenic strains of influenza (flu) virus.

Alnylam will apply RNAi technology to the discovery of short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), the active molecules of RNA interference (RNAi), that target key flu genes required for virus replication and demonstrate potent anti-viral activity across human and avian flu strains.