Alnylam signs potential $1 billion deal with Takeda

Cambridge biotechnology firm Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. said today that it formed a research partnership with Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. potentially worth more than $1 billion.

Last month, Takeda purchased Cambridge life sciences company Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. The $8.8 billion transaction is the biggest deal in the history of the Massachusetts biotechnology industry.

Alnylam, which also formed a lucrative $1 billion partnership with Swiss drug maker Roche last year, is developing RNAi, or gene silencing, technology, which uses mechanisms within the body to target and "turn off" certain genes associated with cancer and other diseases.

Takeda will make a $100 million upfront payment, and $50 million in near-term technology transfer payments covering a non-exclusive licenses in two RNAi treatment fields. The companies value the five-year partnership at potentially more than $1 billion in R&D and commercial milestone payments.

Takeda becomes the only Asian company to receive right of first refusal to develop and market Alnylam RNAi therapies for the Asian market, excluding Alnylam's ALN-RSV01 pediatric respiratory syncytial virus program. In addition, Alnylam receives the option to co-develop and co-market Takeda RNAi drug programs in the U.S. market on a 50-50 basis.

The companies said Takeda may opt to expand their partnership to include additional fields, for $50 million each. Alnylam is also eligible to receive research and development funding related to the drug discovery collaboration, and may receive up to $171 million in development and commercial milestone payments and royalties for each product.

In addition to its deals with Roche and Takeda, Alnylam also has partnerships with Novartis AG, Biogen Idec Inc. of Cambridge, and the National Institutes of Health. The company is among more than a half-dozen biotechnology firms developing RNAi treatments, which involve interfering with messenger-carrying RNA that can trigger disease by delivering genetic information to cells. The technology is designed to ensure a drug reaches its intended target while leaving healthy cells unharmed, unlike blunt approaches such as chemotherapy.

The research stems from a discovery in 1998 by Craig Mello, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts Medical School at Worcester, and Andrew Fire of Stanford University. The pair were honored in 2006 with the Nobel Prize for medicine.

Alnylam's success in forming partnerships with large drugmakers has doubled its share value in the last year. The stock has risen from a 52-week low of $14.87 last July to peak at $37.35 in October following its Roche deal, and closed Friday at $29.45 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. (AP)