Agios Announces Exclusive Worldwide License Agreement for Novel siRNA for the Potential Treatment of Polycythemia Vera - Seite 2

Under the terms of the agreement, Agios will make an upfront payment of $17.5 million to Alnylam for an exclusive global license to the TMPRSS6 siRNA program. In addition, Alnylam is eligible to receive up to $130 million in potential development and regulatory milestone payments, in addition to sales milestones and tiered royalties. Agios will assume sole responsibility for all development, regulatory, and commercial activities and costs related to the program. Alnylam will provide manufacturing support for Phase 1, after which Agios will assume full responsibility for manufacturing.

About RNAi

RNAi (RNA interference) is a natural cellular process of gene silencing that represents one of the most promising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and drug development today. Its discovery has been heralded as “a major scientific breakthrough that happens once every decade or so,” and was recognized with the award of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. By harnessing the natural biological process of RNAi occurring in our cells, a new class of medicines known as RNAi therapeutics is now a reality. Small interfering RNA (siRNA), the molecules that mediate RNAi and comprise Alnylam's RNAi therapeutic platform, function upstream of today’s medicines by potently silencing messenger RNA (mRNA) – the genetic precursors – that encode for disease-causing or disease pathway proteins, thus preventing them from being made. This is a revolutionary approach with the potential to transform the care of patients with genetic and other diseases.

About Agios Pharmaceuticals

Agios is the pioneering leader in PK activation and is dedicated to developing and delivering transformative therapies for patients living with rare diseases. In the U.S., Agios markets a first-in-class pyruvate kinase (PK) activator for adults with PK deficiency, the first disease-modifying therapy for this rare, lifelong, debilitating hemolytic anemia. Building on the company's leadership in the field of cellular metabolism and rare hematologic diseases, Agios is advancing a robust clinical pipeline of investigational medicines with programs in alpha- and beta-thalassemia, sickle cell disease, pediatric PK deficiency and MDS-associated anemia. In addition to its clinical pipeline, Agios has a PAH stabilizer in preclinical development as a potential treatment for phenylketonuria (PKU) and deep scientific expertise in classical hematology. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.agios.com.