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www.fdanews.com/articles/88402-alnylam-and-inex-accelerate-collaboration-on-rnai-therapeutics

ALNYLAM AND INEX ACCELERATE COLLABORATION ON RNAI THERAPEUTICS

July 17, 2006

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a Massachusetts-based therapeutics company, and Canadian drugmaker Inex Pharmaceuticals have announced that the companies are accelerating their collaboration focused on RNAi therapeutics. Alnylam and Inex formed this collaboration in March to explore use of Inex's liposomal delivery technology for the systemic delivery of Alnylam's RNAi therapeutic products.

RNA interference, or RNAi, is a naturally occurring mechanism within cells for selectively silencing and regulating specific genes. Since many diseases are caused by the inappropriate activity of specific genes, the ability to silence genes selectively through RNAi could provide a new way to treat a wide range of human diseases. RNAi is induced by small, double-stranded RNA molecules.