Sanofi declines option for Alnylam's lumasiran

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ALNY) said the Genzyme Corp. unit of Sanofi (Euronext:SAN; NYSE:SNY) declined to exercise its exclusive option to obtain development and commercialization rights to lumasiran (ALN-GO1) outside the U.S., Canada and Western Europe. The company also said FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation to the candidate to treat primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1).

Alnylam said it plans to begin a Phase III trial of lumasiran in late 2018, and hopes to commercialize it worldwide. Lumasiran is a subcutaneous RNAi therapeutic targeting glycolate oxidase using the GalNAc-conjugate delivery platform to treat PH1...