[The following post has been excerpted from “For Journalists: Statement and Background on the CRISPR Patent Decision” by Lee McGuire, Chief Communications Officer, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.] A federal panel has again confirmed that the patents granted by USPTO to the Broad Institute, MIT and Harvard concerning CRISPR editing of eukaryotic genomes do […]

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has announced the European Commission (EC) has granted marketing authorization for Onpattro (patisiran) for the treatment of hereditary transthyretin-mediated (hATTR) amyloidosis in adults with stage 1 or stage 2 polyneuropathy. The approval was granted less than three weeks after Alnylam won FDA approval for Onpattro. The drug is based on Nobel Prize-winning science […]

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) today released its 2018 Industry Snapshot report, which shows that Massachusetts biotechs dominated the IPO market in 2017, accounting for 48% of all US-based biotech IPOs, up from 30% in 2016. 2018 has already outpaced 2017 in terms of total Massachusetts IPOs at 15, which accounts for nearly 40% of […]

RNAi (RNA interference) is a natural cellular process of gene silencing that represents one of the most promising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and drug development today. Its discovery has been heralded as “a major scientific breakthrough that happens once every decade or so,” and was recognized with the award of the 2006 Nobel […]

RNAi therapeutics company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has announced that the FDA has approved Onpattro (patisiran) lipid complex injection, a RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic for the treatment of the polyneuropathy of hereditary transthyretin-mediated (hATTR) amyloidosis in adults. Onpattro is the first and only FDA-approved treatment for this indication. “Alnylam was founded on the vision of harnessing the […]