Scope of RNAi intellectual property will be greatly expanded.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has acquired the intellectual property (IP) assets of Nucleonics, including over 100 active patent filings, with 16 that have granted worldwide and six that have been granted in the U.S., Europe, or Japan.
The Nucleonics IP estate includes several early patents and patent applications, including the Li & Kirby, which covers methods for attenuating the expression of a target gene in vertebrates using a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA); Pachuk I, which covers double-stranded RNA to reduce gene target expression, methods of inhibiting the function of a protein with dsRNA, and multitargeting dsRNAs, which target either the coding or noncoding portions of a gene; and the Giordano patent families, that cover broad structural features of RNAi therapeutics and extend the breadth of Alnylam’s fundamental IP, which is comprised of the Crooke, Fire & Mello, Kreutzer-Limmer, Glover, Tuschl I, Tuschl II, Hannon, and Kay patent families.
With this acquisition, Alnylam has extended the scope of its overall IP estate for RNAi therapeutics, which now includes over 1,800 active cases.
