By no means is it easy to try to launch an entirely new class of pharmaceuticals, but that is essentially what Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) has set out to do. Despite some encouraging (albeit very early) signs of success, investors have very much taken note of Big Pharma's increasing skepticism towards what this company is trying to do. Consequently, the stock trades for little more than the cash on its books despite a promising pipeline that is only getting started in human studies.
The Long March
Investors who have high hopes for Alnylam's RNA interference (RNAi) technology may want to take a page from the history books. Although Amgen (AMGN), Biogen Idec (BIIB), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and Roche (RHHBY.PK) have all had success with recombinant protein and monoclonal antibody drugs, the reality is that the science underpinning these drugs really started early in the 20th century and it took more than a decade for promising (and Nobel Prize-winning) research in the 1970's to actually result in approvable drugs.
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Alnylam Looks Nearly Left For Dead
Showing posts with label Regulus Therapeutics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Regulus Therapeutics. Show all posts
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Another Partnership For Alnylam
One of my favorite biotechs (and one that I own), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALNY), announced yet another partnership tied to its microRNA/RNAi technology.
Tuesday morning, Alnylam announced that Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) had formed a research and development partnership with Regulus Therapeutics. Regulus is a 50/50 joint venture between Alnylam and antisense pioneer Isis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ISIS). As part of the three-year deal, Sanofi is sending a $25 million initial payment to Regulus, and Sanofi will pay for all of the R&D during the deal. Sanofi also has the option to extend the deal for an additional two years, and could send as much as $750 million to the partnership if various development milestones are met (that's a BIG if, and predicated on multiple clinical successes for multiple compounds). The deal may also include a $10M equity investment in Regulus if the parties can agree to a price.
The deal will initially cover the potential use of microRNA for the treatment of fibroids (four different targets), but could expand even further.
Now, partnerships are nothing new for Alnylam (nor Regulus, as there's also a deal in place with Glaxo). The company already had lucrative deals with the likes of Roche, Novartis, and Takeda. That Big Pharma validation is certainly part of why Alnylam is considered the leader in RNAi, and the company has an impressive amount of IP to back up its promise (over 300 patents to date).
This isn't the time or the post where I'm going to go into detail on why I like Alnylam. But I will say this is one of the most interesting biotechs I've seen in a long, long time and while there is nothing like a "sure thing" in biotech, I'm actually allowing myself to get a little excited about the potential of this one. Then again, I once thought the same thing about Isis and although I profited from my ownership in those shares, that never worked out as I had hoped.
Disclosure: I own shares of Alnylam
Tuesday morning, Alnylam announced that Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) had formed a research and development partnership with Regulus Therapeutics. Regulus is a 50/50 joint venture between Alnylam and antisense pioneer Isis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ISIS). As part of the three-year deal, Sanofi is sending a $25 million initial payment to Regulus, and Sanofi will pay for all of the R&D during the deal. Sanofi also has the option to extend the deal for an additional two years, and could send as much as $750 million to the partnership if various development milestones are met (that's a BIG if, and predicated on multiple clinical successes for multiple compounds). The deal may also include a $10M equity investment in Regulus if the parties can agree to a price.
The deal will initially cover the potential use of microRNA for the treatment of fibroids (four different targets), but could expand even further.
Now, partnerships are nothing new for Alnylam (nor Regulus, as there's also a deal in place with Glaxo). The company already had lucrative deals with the likes of Roche, Novartis, and Takeda. That Big Pharma validation is certainly part of why Alnylam is considered the leader in RNAi, and the company has an impressive amount of IP to back up its promise (over 300 patents to date).
This isn't the time or the post where I'm going to go into detail on why I like Alnylam. But I will say this is one of the most interesting biotechs I've seen in a long, long time and while there is nothing like a "sure thing" in biotech, I'm actually allowing myself to get a little excited about the potential of this one. Then again, I once thought the same thing about Isis and although I profited from my ownership in those shares, that never worked out as I had hoped.
Disclosure: I own shares of Alnylam
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