Partnerships
Since our inception in 2002, we have formed more than 40 different relationships with major pharmaceutical companies, other biotechnology companies, the government, and foundations.
Licensing
As a testament to the strength of our leading intellectual property (IP) estate, we believe more than 50% of all clinical-stage RNAi therapeutics are licensed under Alnylam IP, and more than 75% of sales of RNAi products in the research reagent market are covered under Alnylam IP.
About RNAi
With RNAi technology, we have the opportunity to treat disease and impact the lives of patients in a fundamentally new way by silencing disease-causing genes upstream of today's medicines.
Intellectual Property
Alnylam believes that no other company owns a portfolio with such broad and exclusive rights to fundamental RNAi patents and patent applications required for the development and commercialization of all RNAi therapeutics. Indeed, Alnylam's intellectual property (IP) estate includes over 1800 active cases, over 700 granted patents worldwide, and over 300 granted or issued patents in the world's major pharmaceutical markets- U.S., EU, and Japan. We believe that these patents place Alnylam in the strongest possible position to build our company over the long-term and will continue to strengthen our efforts as the entire pharmaceutical industry looks to RNAi as an important strategy for new drug discovery.
Alnylam's IP estate includes fundamental, chemistry, delivery, and therapeutic target patents. While all of these patents are important, we believe that the "fundamental" patents in particular define the broadest coverage for the development and commercialization of RNAi therapeutics. The fundamental IP that Alnylam believes will be most important in providing competitive advantage and product exclusivity with respect to RNAi therapeutics are the patents referred to as the "Tuschl II," "Kreutzer-Limmer" and "Crooke" patents and patent applications. Issued claims of these patents in the world's largest pharmaceutical markets — U.S., Europe, and Japan — cover all forms of siRNAs including lengths from 15 to 49 nucleotides, so-called "overhang" or "blunt end" features, longer forms or so-called "dicer substrates" as well as many additional siRNA design and functional features; and all siRNAs with or without chemical modifications used to introduce "drug-like" features. The issued claims include those covering compositions of matter, medicaments, methods, and uses. In addition, key additional patents include those by "Glover," "Li & Kirby," "Pachuk I," "Giordano," and "Kay". Overall, there are 11 fundamental patents in the field of RNAi therapeutics issued or granted in the world's major markets; Alnylam is the only company that has access to all 11 and exclusive access to 10 of these patents.
The importance and significance of Alnylam's IP estate has been validated with over 30 distinct agreements with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and research reagent companies that together have resulted in approximately $640 million in realized funding to date.
