Alnylam Pharmaceuticals this week announced that the Japanese Patent Office has upheld certain key claims within the company's Tuschl-II patent during invalidation proceedings initiated at the request of Bio Think-Tank, a Japanese company.
Tuschl-II is a family of patents and patent applications broadly related to siRNAs, between 21 to 23 nucleotides long, and with 2- to 3-nucleotide-long 3' overhangs, that can target specific mRNA degradation in mammals. It is named for Rockefeller University researcher and Alnylam co-founder Thomas Tuschl, and is exclusively licensed to Alnylam.