Alnylam, Medtronic Advance Work on Drug-Device Combinations

Medtronic and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, an RNAi therapeutics company, announced they are advancing a collaboration toward drug-device combinations following positive preclinical data generated under the joint technology development phase of the program.

Under the agreement, initiated in 2005, Alnylam and Medtronic will focus on developing a drug-device combination for the treatment of Huntington’s disease. The product is expected to consist of an RNAi therapeutic targeting the Huntington’s disease gene to be delivered by Medtronic’s implantable infusion pump.

In addition, the companies may decide to collaborate on the development of similar drug-device combinations using Alnylam’s RNAi therapeutics platform and Medtronic’s implantable infusion pump for the treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.