Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer in RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics, has joined the Alliance for Genomic Discovery (AGD).

The AGD was established by Nashville Biosciences and Illumina, a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, in collaboration with leading pharmaceutical companies, with the aim of accelerating the development of novel therapeutics through the use of large-scale genomics and creating a preeminent real-world genomic resource.

Alnylam has become the ninth member of the alliance, joining AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Merck, and Novo Nordisk.

Its partnership will further strengthen AGD’s clinical genomic database, supporting the sequencing and analysis of an additional 31,250 whole genomes, expanding the alliance’s existing 250,000-genome cohort. Alnylam plans to use the resource to derive real-world insights and accelerate drug target discovery.  

RNAi therapeutics function by "silencing" genes that cause or contribute to disease, working upstream of traditional treatment approaches. Access to AGD's dataset will provide a valuable resource for Alnylam scientists who hunt for new therapeutic targets.

"We are excited to join the Alliance for Genomic Discovery and contribute to the expansion of this important dataset, while simultaneously mining it for insights," said Paul Nioi, senior vice president of Research at Alnylam.

"We rely on human genetics to guide us as we discover and develop RNAi therapeutics with the potential to change medicine. The AGD dataset will bolster our ability to identify therapeutic targets that are relevant to patients from many different backgrounds,” he added.

Since its formation, AGD has already helped identify and validate novel therapeutic targets, particularly in autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases, with results published or underway. The consortium now plans to add multiomic layers to its dataset, which will facilitate faster and more efficient target discovery and therapy development.

Illumina and NashBio, which lead the AGD initiative, welcomed Alnylam’s entry as an important step in advancing genomic-driven drug discovery.

Todd Christian, senior vice president of Services, Arrays and Genomic Access at Illumina, said, "Alnylam's decision to join the alliance speaks to the immense value of this resource that combines powerful scale and depth of sequencing with clinical data quality and diverse ancestral representation to advance the critical work of our biopharma partners.”

Leeland Ekstrom, chief executive officer of NashBio, added, “Additional data scale, as well as other planned extensions, such as adding proteomics and extracting more clinical phenotypes from the unstructured parts of the linked electronic health records, will accelerate the pace and types of innovation possible with this resource."