Alnylam Grants Dharmacon License to Kreutzer-Limmer Patents for the RNA Interference Research Products Market; Leading Provider of RNAi Research Tools Gains Access to First Issued RNAi Research Patents in Europe.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & LAFAYETTE, Colo. -- Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, and Dharmacon, Inc., a business unit of the Fisher Biosciences group and a leading supplier of innovative RNA and RNAi research products, announced today that Alnylam has granted Dharmacon a non-exclusive license to provide RNAi research products and services under the Kreutzer-Limmer patent family. This patent family, owned solely by Alnylam, covers small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and their use to mediate RNAi in mammalian cells.

"We are delighted that Dharmacon, one of the world's leading suppliers of siRNA reagents, has taken a license to the Kreutzer-Limmer patent family, which is seen as a critical component of fundamental intellectual property in the field of RNAi," said Vincent Miles, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Business Development of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. "This new agreement with Dharmacon further underscores the value of Alnylam's intellectual property for commercialization of RNAi products. Importantly, we believe that the majority of all sales in the RNAi research products marketplace are now being made under licenses to the Kreutzer-Limmer patent family."

William S. Marshall, Ph.D., Vice President of Technology and Business Development for Fisher Biosciences said, "Taking a license to the Kreutzer-Limmer patent family strengthens our ability to provide innovative siRNA technologies to life science and drug discovery researchers around the globe. This license expands our already extensive portfolio of internally developed and in-licensed RNAi intellectual property and enables Dharmacon to focus on our mission of advancing science and medicine through innovative RNA technologies."

Alnylam's intellectual property estate includes certain "fundamental" patents and patent applications that claim broad structural and functional properties of synthetic RNAi products. This fundamental intellectual property includes the Kreutzer-Limmer patent family that was obtained through the July 2003 acquisition of Ribopharma AG, now Alnylam Europe AG. The Kreutzer-Limmer family includes: EP Patent No. 1144623, covering siRNAs up to 25 nucleotides in length having a sequence complementary to a target gene; and EP Patent No. 1214945, covering compositions, methods, and uses of siRNAs with a length between 15 and 49 nucleotides. Patents corresponding to these European patents have been issued or are pending in many other countries. Dharmacon is one of 10 research products suppliers, and 17 companies overall, to take a license for therapeutic or research product applications under fundamental intellectual property owned or controlled by Alnylam in the field of RNAi.

About RNA Interference (RNAi)

RNA interference, or RNAi, is a naturally occurring mechanism within cells for selectively silencing and regulating specific genes. Since many diseases are caused by the inappropriate activity of specific genes, the ability to silence genes selectively through RNAi could provide a new way to treat a wide range of human diseases. RNAi is induced by small, double-stranded RNA molecules. One method to activate RNAi is with chemically synthesized small interfering RNAs, or siRNAs, which are double-stranded RNAs that are targeted to a specific disease-associated gene. The siRNA molecules are used by the natural RNAi machinery in cells to cause highly targeted gene silencing.

About Alnylam

Alnylam is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on a breakthrough in biology known as 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 building a pipeline of RNAi therapeutics; its lead program is in Phase I human clinical trials for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, which is the leading cause of hospitalization in infants in the U.S. 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 Merck, Medtronic, and Novartis. The company, founded in 2002, maintains global headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has an additional operating unit in Kulmbach, Germany. For more information, please visit www.alnylam.com.

About Dharmacon

Dharmacon is a business unit within the Fisher Biosciences group and the world's leading provider of reliable, high quality RNA oligonucleotides, small interfering RNA (siRNA) and related RNA-interference (RNAi) products and technologies. Using its core expertise in chemistry, biology, bioinformatics and production, Dharmacon has developed industry-leading siRNA design, chemical modification, and delivery technologies for maximizing the efficiency of gene silencing. Dharmacon's proprietary SMARTselection(TM) and SMARTpool(R) technologies result in potent and specific gene-silencing agents that can accelerate life-science research and drug discovery. Dharmacon's siGENOME(TM), a comprehensive and flexible siRNA collection, offers guaranteed silencing reagents for all unique human, mouse and rat genes. The company's advanced siRNA modification technologies further enhance silencing specificity, stability, and in vivo performance. For more information about Dharmacon products and services visit www.dharmacon.com or call 303-604-9499.

About Fisher Biosciences

Fisher Biosciences, a unit of Fisher Scientific International Inc. (NYSE: FSH), manufactures and supplies a wide range of products and services across the general-chemistry and life-sciences arenas. From fine and high-purity chemicals, clinical diagnostics, proprietary protein-research and cell-culture products, and sterile-liquid-handling systems, to innovative RNA-interference technology and high content screening, Fisher Biosciences serves scientific-research, healthcare, drug-discovery, and general industrial customers around the world.

Alnylam Forward-Looking Statements

Various statements in this release concerning our future expectations, plans and prospects, including our views with respect to the commercialization of RNAi products, 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: our approach to discover and develop novel drugs, which is unproven and may never lead to marketable products; our ability to obtain additional funding to support our business activities; our dependence on third parties for development, manufacture, marketing, sales and distribution of our products; the successful development of products, all of which are in early stages of development; obtaining regulatory approval for products; competition from others using technology similar to ours and others developing products for similar uses; obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property utilized by our products; our dependence on collaborators; and our short operating history; as well as those risks more fully discussed in the "Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results" section of our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.