Alnylam Grants new InterfeRx™ Intellectual Property License to Tekmira
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Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has granted Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a new target-specific InterfeRx™ license to discover, develop, and commercialize an RNAi therapeutic for the treatment of Ebola virus infection (TKM-Ebola). Detailed financial terms were not disclosed, but include royalties on sales of any resulting product under the licensing agreement.
"With this new license, Tekmira is building on what has proven to be a very strong reciprocal relationship with Alnylam," said Dr. Mark J. Murray, Tekmira's President and CEO. "We now have broad access to Alnylam's leading intellectual property for the development of eight RNAi therapeutic products, including TKM-Ebola. We are encouraged by the strong pre-clinical data supporting the development of TKM-Ebola and look forward to filing an IND in the second half of 2011. The TKM-Ebola program is fully funded under a US$140 million contract Tekmira signed with the U.S. government earlier this year."
"Our collaborative relationship with Tekmira continues to be extremely productive, and we are pleased to grant Tekmira an InterfeRx license providing them broad intellectual property coverage for their Ebola program," said Barry Greene, President and Chief Operating Officer of Alnylam. "TKM-Ebola is an example of the significant progress in the area of systemic delivery of RNAi therapeutics."
Tekmira is developing TKM-Ebola, a systemically delivered RNAi therapeutic which utilizes Tekmira's lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology, for the treatment of Ebola virus infection. Results from pre-clinical models from this program have demonstrated that administration of TKM-Ebola results in 100% protection from the fatal virus (Geisbert et al., The Lancet, Vol 375, May 29, 2010).
Tekmira is developing this program under a US$140 million contract awarded by the U.S. Government's Transformational Medical Technologies (TMT) Program. The TMT contract will support the development of TKM-Ebola through FDA approval. Tekmira expects to file an investigational new drug (IND) application for TKM-Ebola in the second half of 2011.
"With this new license, Tekmira is building on what has proven to be a very strong reciprocal relationship with Alnylam," said Dr. Mark J. Murray, Tekmira's President and CEO. "We now have broad access to Alnylam's leading intellectual property for the development of eight RNAi therapeutic products, including TKM-Ebola. We are encouraged by the strong pre-clinical data supporting the development of TKM-Ebola and look forward to filing an IND in the second half of 2011. The TKM-Ebola program is fully funded under a US$140 million contract Tekmira signed with the U.S. government earlier this year."
"Our collaborative relationship with Tekmira continues to be extremely productive, and we are pleased to grant Tekmira an InterfeRx license providing them broad intellectual property coverage for their Ebola program," said Barry Greene, President and Chief Operating Officer of Alnylam. "TKM-Ebola is an example of the significant progress in the area of systemic delivery of RNAi therapeutics."
Tekmira is developing TKM-Ebola, a systemically delivered RNAi therapeutic which utilizes Tekmira's lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology, for the treatment of Ebola virus infection. Results from pre-clinical models from this program have demonstrated that administration of TKM-Ebola results in 100% protection from the fatal virus (Geisbert et al., The Lancet, Vol 375, May 29, 2010).
Tekmira is developing this program under a US$140 million contract awarded by the U.S. Government's Transformational Medical Technologies (TMT) Program. The TMT contract will support the development of TKM-Ebola through FDA approval. Tekmira expects to file an investigational new drug (IND) application for TKM-Ebola in the second half of 2011.
