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Alnylam's $2B Deal With Blackstone to Boost Drug Development

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Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ALNY - Free Report) , a leading RNAi therapeutics company, and The Blackstone Group Inc. (BX - Free Report) , an alternative investments and financial advisory services provider, entered into a broad strategic collaboration. The deal will support Alnylam’s advancement of innovative RNAi medicines with up to $2 billion investment from Blackstone.

Per the terms of the deal, Blackstone will pay $1 billion in committed payments to Alnylam in exchange of 50% of commercial milestones and royalties from sales related to inclisiran, following its potential approval. Please note that, inclisiran, an RNAi therapeutic, is under review for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia in the United States. Alnylam and The Medicines Company, which was acquired by Novartis (NVS - Free Report) earlier this year, have jointly developed the candidates.

The deal will also provide Alnylam a term loan of up to $750 million, a fund of up to $150 million to support development of Alnylam’s cardiometabolic programs vutrisiran and ALN-AGT, and $100 million in equity investments.

Alnylam believes that the deal with Blackstone will make the company self-sustainable. The Blackstone investment will also likely accelerate the commercial potential of Alnylam’s rapidly advancing product portfolio and support the development and delivery of promising medicines.

Shares of Alnylam were up 2.3% following the announcement. In fact, the company’s shares have increased 3.4% so far this year against the industry’s decrease of 6.6%.

Alnylam has an encouraging commercial portfolio as well as a strong pipeline. The company has two approved drugs — Onpattro and Givlaari. While Onpattro was approved in 2018 for the treatment of the polyneuropathy of hATTR amyloidosis in adults, Givlaari was approved during the fourth quarter of 2019 as a treatment for acute hepatic porphyria. Onpattro is the first and only FDA-approved treatment for its indication. Sales of the drug increased 21.3% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2019. Alnylam is also planning to expand the label of Onpattro and is evaluating the drug in a phase III study as a potential treatment for ATTR amyloidosis patients with cardiomyopathy.

The company is developing several RNAi therapeutics targeting multiple indications. Last month, the company collaborated with Vir Biotechnology, Inc. (VIR - Free Report) to develop/commercialize RNAi therapeutics targeting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Earlier this month, the company completed the rolling submission of a new drug application seeking approval for its RNAi candidate, lumasiran, as a treatment for primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1). The ultra-rare disease causes a progressive decline in kidney function and can lead to end-stage renal disease. It is evaluating vutrisiran in late-stage studies for treating hATTR amyloidosis with polyneuropathy, and hereditary and wild-type ATTR amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy. Another late-stage candidate is fitusiran, which is being developed in partnership with Sanofi as a treatment for hemophilia A or B.

The significant investment from Blackstone will help the company to continue on its growth path and accelerate development of its pipeline.

Zacks Rank

Alnylam is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock currently. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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