Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced in a Tuesday press release the first grant for the Kay & McCaffrey patent.
The patent is an early, “fundamental” patent in the RNAi therapeutics field based on the groundbreaking research by Drs. Anton McCaffrey and Mark Kay (McCaffrey et al. (2002) Nature 418, 38-39) who were amongst the first to demonstrate the ability to harness RNA interference in a living mammal.
The Kay & McCaffrey patent is licensed exclusively to Alnylam through an agreement with Stanford University.
The Kay & McCaffrey patent (AU 2002326410) was granted after examination by the Australian Patent Office with 38 claims that broadly cover methods and compositions of RNAi therapeutics, including a method of reducing expression of a coding sequence in a target mammalian cell with a double-stranded RNA of between 15 and 25 nucleotides in length.
In addition, the patent includes claims covering small interfering RNAs (siRNAs, the molecules that mediate RNAi) and short hairpin RNAs.
The Kay & McCaffrey patent series, with these and additional claim sets, is pending in other jurisdictions, including the US, EU, and Japan.
“We are delighted to add the Kay & McCaffrey patent to the broader portfolio of Alnylam held patents that comprise Intellectual Property which we believe is fundamental for the development and commercialization of all RNAi therapeutics,” Alnylam Pharmaceuticals President and Chief Operating Officer Barry Greene stated.
SOURCE:AGIPNEWS
