Alnylam Pharmaceuticals said this week that it has amended and consolidated its RNAi-based drug-development deals with Merck into a single ongoing collaboration in order to give Merck a more active role in the development process, signaling an increased commitment by the big pharma in RNAi as a therapeutic modality.

Alnylam noted that, under the new deal, it could receive milestone payments of more than $120 million based on the successful commercialization of three RNAi drugs solely by Merck.