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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (9069)	9/9/2003 9:59:36 AM
From: michael_f_murphy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

Merck And Alnylam Tuesday September 9, 8:19 am ET WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. -(Dow Jones)- Merck & Co. and Alnylam Holding Co., a therapeutic RNA interference company, signed a multi-year collaboration agreement to develop RNAi-based technology and therapeutics. In a press release Tuesday, pharmaceutical company Merck said the companies will work to advance RNAi technology, which uses a natural biological mechanism to inhibit the expression of disease-causing genes and viruses, and jointly apply the technology to develop RNAi-based therapeutics that selectively target human diseases. Merck will provide Alnylam with a series of drug targets that have well- validated roles in disease and are candidates for a new therapeutic approach using RNAi. Alnylam will develop RNAi compounds against these targets and advance RNAi-based drug candidates through preclinical development. The companies will then decide whether Alnylam, Merck or the two companies together will proceed with the further development and commercialization of each RNAi- based drug candidate. Under the agreement, Merck will make upfront and annual cash payments and also make an equity investment in Alnylam. The achievement of a pre-specified technology milestone will trigger an additional cash payment and equity investment.

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (9069)	9/9/2003 10:19:38 AM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 52153

How will you get it to where it's going to work? Good question and the reason why I don't own the stock as a "buy and forget about it" type stock. There is also reason to believe it's not quite the magic bullet it claims to be in terms of specificity - there was an article a few months back showing "off-target" effects. But the area has huge potential if they can get it to work, and it's very high profile. So RNAI is worth keeping an eye on - as we move into a frothier environment it's the sort of stock that can spike on news. (And looking at some spikes by companies that had their "Fast Track" status hyped in the past few days, we do seem to be moving into a frothier environment.) Peter