NEW YORK, Dec. 14 (GenomeWeb News) - With initial funding from the Department of Defense, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals will advance its pandemic flu project into a development program, the company announced today.
The project will join the pipeline of other RNAi therapeutics. The company expects to submit an investigational new drug application for an RNAi therapeutic for pandemic flu as early as the end of 2006.
The funding came from DoD's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Alnylam said. The amount was not disclosed.
The Alnylam pandemic flu program is focused on the development of an RNAi therapeutic targeting sequences that are highly conserved across all flu genomes, including those of avian origin such as the H5N1 strain.