Alnylam grants license to Japanese supplier

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced today it has granted a non-exclusive license to provide some of its research products and services to a company that supplies the Japanese and Korean markets.

Alnylam is a Cambridge biopharmaceutical company seeking to develop novel technologies based on RNA interference, or RNAi, a naturally occurring mechanism within cells for selectively silencing and regulating specific genes; since many diseases are caused by the inappropriate activity of specific cells, the ability to silence genes selectively through RNAi is thought to have great potential.

The company being granted a license for Alnylam's RNAi research products is Hayashi Kasei of Osaka, Japan, Alnylam said.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)