CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jul 16, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi
therapeutics company, announced today that Novartis has elected to
extend the company's RNAi therapeutics collaboration for an additional
year, through October 2009. The landmark alliance was initiated in
October 2005 and is focused on the discovery, development, and
commercialization of RNAi therapeutics toward a defined number of
Novartis-selected disease gene targets.

"Our efforts with Novartis have been very productive over the past
three years, and we are delighted that Novartis has elected to extend
our alliance for another year," said John Maraganore, Ph.D., Chief
Executive Officer of Alnylam. "Novartis was a pioneer in recognizing
the potential of RNAi therapeutics as a new class of medicines, and we
look forward to continuing our work with them as we advance this
innovation to patients."

In the Novartis-Alnylam collaboration, both companies are jointly
responsible for RNAi discovery activities and Novartis is generally
responsible for development and commercialization of RNAi therapeutic
products. With the extension of the alliance term, Novartis will
continue to fund collaboration research and development efforts
conducted by Alnylam. Further, Novartis retains its right to exercise
a non-exclusive platform license from Alnylam in exchange for an
undisclosed payment and future milestones and royalties. In addition,
Novartis has the option to extend the collaboration for one additional
one-year term through 2010. Finally, Novartis retains certain rights
to purchase Alnylam equity up to 19.9%; current Novartis ownership is
approximately 13.4%.

About RNA Interference (RNAi)

RNAi (RNA interference) is a revolution in biology, representing a
breakthrough in understanding how genes are turned on and off in
cells, and a completely new approach to drug discovery and
development. Its discovery has been heralded as "a major scientific
breakthrough that happens once every decade or so," and represents one
of the most promising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and
drug discovery today which was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine. RNAi is a natural process of gene silencing
that occurs in organisms ranging from plants to mammals. By harnessing
the natural biological process of RNAi occurring in our cells, the
creation of a major new class of medicines, known as RNAi
therapeutics, is on the horizon. RNAi therapeutics target the cause of
diseases by potently silencing specific messenger RNAs (mRNAs),
thereby preventing disease-causing proteins from being made. RNAi
therapeutics have the potential to treat disease and help patients in
a fundamentally new way.

About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Alnylam is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel
therapeutics based on RNA interference, or RNAi. The company is
applying its therapeutic expertise in RNAi to address significant
medical needs, many of which cannot effectively be addressed with
small molecules or antibodies, the current major classes of drugs.
Alnylam is leading the translation of RNAi as a new class of
innovative medicines with peer-reviewed research efforts published in
the world's top scientific journals including Nature, Nature Medicine,
and Cell. The company is leveraging these capabilities to build a
broad pipeline of RNAi therapeutics; its most advanced program is in
Phase II human clinical trials for the treatment of respiratory
syncytial virus (RSV) infection. In addition, the company is
developing RNAi therapeutics for the treatment of a wide range of
disease areas, including hypercholesterolemia, liver cancers, and
Huntington's disease. The company's leadership position in fundamental
patents, technology, and know-how relating to RNAi has enabled it to
form major alliances with leading companies including Medtronic,
Novartis, Biogen Idec, Roche, Takeda, and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo. To
reflect its outlook for key scientific, clinical, and business
initiatives, Alnylam has established "RNAi 2010" which includes the
company's plan to significantly expand the scope of delivery solutions
for RNAi therapeutics, have four or more programs in clinical
development, and to form four or more new major business
collaborations, all by the end of 2010. Alnylam is a joint owner of
Regulus Therapeutics LLC, a joint venture focused on the discovery,
development, and commercialization of microRNA therapeutics. Founded
in 2002, Alnylam maintains headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
For more information, visit www.alnylam.com.

Alnylam Forward-Looking Statements

Various statements in this release concerning Alnylam's future
expectations, plans and prospects, constitute forward-looking
statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may
differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking
statements as a result of various important factors, including risks
related to: Alnylam's approach to discover and develop novel drugs,
which is unproven and may never lead to marketable products;
obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property; Alnylam's
ability to enforce its patents against infringers and to defend its
patent portfolio against challenges from third parties; Alnylam's
ability to obtain additional funding to support its business
activities; Alnylam's ability to realize future milestones and
royalties; Alnylam's dependence on third parties for development,
manufacture, marketing, sales and distribution of products; obtaining
regulatory approval for products; competition from others using
technology similar to Alnylam's and others developing products for
similar uses; Alnylam's dependence on collaborators; and Alnylam's
short operating history; as well as those risks more fully discussed
in the "Risk Factors" section of its most recent quarterly report on
Form 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In
addition, any forward-looking statements represent Alnylam's views
only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its
views as of any subsequent date. Alnylam does not assume any
obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Cynthia Clayton, 617-551-8207 (Investors)
or
Yates Public Relations
Kathryn Morris, 845-635-9828 (Media)

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