Alnylam Granted Broad European Patent for RNAi Therapeutics

The European Patent Office has granted Alnylam Pharmaceuticals a new patent with broad claims covering short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), the molecules that mediate RNA interference (RNAi).

The new patent significantly extends the claims of the original Kreutzer-Limmer patent, a pioneering patent in the RNAi field, which Alnylam acquired in the July 2003 merger with Ribopharma AG. The claims of the newly granted patent cover therapeutic compositions, methods, and uses of siRNAs and derivatives with a length between 15 and 49 nucleotides.