Alnylam defends heart disease drugs after AstraZeneca’s failure

Andrew covers the biopharma industry, scientific research, and public health across the continent. You can reach Andrew confidentially on Signal at drewqjoseph.71.

When AstraZeneca on Friday detailed the failed trial of its drug Wainua in a heart condition known as ATTR-CM, the bad news, according to one school of thought, extended to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. 

Some analysts interpreted the study’s miss as a broad sign that silencers — the kind of medicine that Alnylam sells and that AstraZeneca was testing — offered no added benefits if patients were already on another kind of drug known as a stabilizer, and as an indication that stabilizers might be superior.

Now, Alnylam is mounting a defense of its silencers, with ramifications both for its marketed drug Amvuttra, and for its next-gen treatment nucresiran.