Jan 13, 2004 Press Release for Alnylam

Alnylam Licenses Fundamental Patent In RNA Interference To Cell Signaling Technology

Jan 13, 2004

Cambridge, MA - January 13, 2004 -- Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the leading RNAi therapeutics company, today announced that its German affiliate, Ribopharma AG, has granted Cell Signaling Technology, Inc. a non-exclusive license to provide research products under a fundamental patent in RNA interference (RNAi). The licensed patent is the first and only issued patent covering the use of short double-stranded RNAs to mediate RNAi. Under the terms of the agreement, Cell Signaling Technology (CST) will pay an initial and annual license fees, as well as royalties on the sales of licensed products.
"This license with Cell Signaling Technology, a key provider of reagents for signal transduction research, is part of our strategy to make our fundamental patent in RNAi broadly available to the r esearch community", said Vincent Miles, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Business Development of Alnylam. "The widespread use of RNAi as the research tool of choice for gene silencing is providing much valuable information about gene function and the RNAi mechanism, which will benefit our programs to develop RNAi therapeutics".
"Our customers have asked for a consistent source of products that work, in particular siRNA that have been validated at the level of protein expression", said Michael Melnick, Vice President of Business Development, CST. "Our relationship with Alnylam and Ribopharma, pioneers in RNAi technology, enables CST to provide the research community with the highest possible quality siRNA. Our new SignalSilence® siRNA kits have been shown to consistently inhibit target protein expression."

About RNAi
RNA interference, or RNAi, is a naturally occurring mechanism within cells for selectively silencing specific genes, an ability that could become the basis for a whole new class of therapeutic products. The discovery of RNAi has been heralded by many as a major breakthrough, and Science Magazine named RNAi the top scientific achievement of 2002 as well as one of the top ten scientific advances of 2003. Because many diseases are caused by the inappropriate activity of specific genes, the ability to silence such genes selectively through RNAi could provide a means to treat a wide range of human diseases. The RNAi mechanism was recently discovered, in part, by the scientific founders of Alnylam, who showed that RNAi is mediated by a molecule known as a small interfering RNA, or siRNA, and that chemically-synthesized siRNAs made in the laboratory can be introduced into cells and silence the activity of specific genes. Alnylam is developing chemically-synthesized siRNAs as potential drugs for a variety of diseases.

About Alnylam
Alnylam, the leading RNAi therapeutics company, is harnessing the natural mechanism of RNAi to build a deep pipeline of products with the potential to treat a wide range of human diseases. Growing from its foundation as the world's first company focused on RNAi therapeutics, the company is built around the leading capabilities of its two operating units, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Ribopharma AG of Kulmbach, Germany. The company's leadership in the field of RNAi is supported by its preeminent founders and advisors and its strengths in fundamental patents, technology, and know-how that underlie the commercialization of RNAi therapeutics. The company's focus is to develop a pipeline of RNAi products using both Direct RNAiTM and Systemic RNAiTM approaches to treat a broad range of diseases, including central nervous system, metabolic, ocular, viral, oncologic, and autoimmune diseases. The company's global headquarters are in Cambridge, MA.

About Cell Signaling Technology
Cell Signaling Technology, Inc. has been a pioneer in the development of activation-state-specific or "smart" antibodies and related products used in basic biomedical research, pharmaceutical drug discovery, and clinical pathology. CST was founded in 1999 by scientists from New England Biolabs and is based in Beverly, MA. CST provides high quality, innovative reagents to academic and industry customers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.cellsignal.com