Alynlam Pharmaceuticals, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has awarded Jacobs Engineering Group a contract to provide engineering services and procurement for Alnylam's new manufacturing facility in Norton, Massachusetts to supply RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutics for clinical and commercial needs.

Under the agreement, Jacobs is providing engineering services and procurement for the multi-product facility. The 200,000-square-foot facility is expected to be completed in 2018.

Alnylam is developing RNAi-based therapeutics with a focus on genetic medicines, cardio-metabolic disease, and hepatic infectious disease. The company has formed alliances with Ionis, Novartis, Roche, Takeda, Merck, Monsanto, The Medicines Company, and Sanofi Genzyme, the specialty care global business unit of Sanofi.

In January 2014, Alnylam and Sanofi Genzyme formed an alliance to accelerate and expand the development and commercialization of RNAi therapeutics globally. Under the alliance, Alnylam retains product rights in North America and Western Europe, and Sanofi Genzyme obtained the right to access certain programs in Alnylam’s current and future genetic medicines pipeline in the rest of the world through the end of 2019, together with certain broader co-development/co-commercialization rights and global rights for certain products.

Source: Jacobs Engineering Group and Alynlam Pharmaceuticals