The campaign features 59-year-old Gerardo Ozorio, a former smoker who quit in June 2008 after smoking for 46 years. Two months later, Ozorio was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Gerardo passed away on January 1, 2009, shortly after recording the ads. He will never know the immense impact his story will have on the Hispanic community.

“Gerardo’s story puts a face on tobacco-related diseases and their tangible negative effects,” said David Neville, TPCP media coordinator. “The ads are incredibly powerful – we hope the Ozorio family’s story will motivate tobacco users to quit for good.”

Gerardo, his wife Adolfina, and sons Gustavo and Ramón were all interviewed for the campaign. The message is that tobacco addiction impacts not only the smoker but everyone else around them, especially loved ones. As stated by Gustavo, “…nothing can prepare you in life to see your father sick this way. Nothing prepares you in life for something as horrible as cancer.”

“We’re very grateful to the Ozorio family – especially Gerardo– for sharing their story in hopes it will encourage others to quit,” Neville said.

The TRUTH campaign is part of Utah’s comprehensive and proven approach to reducing the health and financial burdens tobacco use has on communities. The TRUTH and its partners provide programs to: prevent youth from starting to use tobacco; help tobacco users quit; protect Utahns from secondhand smoke; and eliminate tobacco-related disparities.

To view the ads, visit http://wediditstory.com/videopage/spanish.php.

For help quitting, call the Hispanic Tobacco Quit Line at 1-877-629-1585 or visit http://www.utahquitnet.com

The mission of the Utah Department of Health is to protect the public’s health through preventing avoidable illness, injury, disability and premature death, assuring access to affordable, quality health care, and promoting healthy lifestyles.

Also Included In: Lung Cancer; Respiratory / Asthma; Cancer / Oncology

There are a number of reasons that make diagnosing mesothelioma in its early stages extremely difficult. The symptoms of mesothelioma can have a latency period of anywhere between 20 to 50 years after the initial asbestos contact, which means by the time the symptoms begin to show, the cancer is already within its advanced stages. Once symptoms are present, diagnosis is still not a speedy process. There are a number of diseases that mirror the symptoms that are found in mesothelioma patients and because of this mesothelioma is often the last stop – usually without prior mention from the patient about the possibility of previous asbestos exposure.

The success of treatment for mesothelioma is dependent on the stage in which the cancer is found. As it is found that most mesothelioma is not discovered until the advanced stages, mesothelioma treatment is often referred to as “unsuccessful.” Studies show that when found within either stage I or II, treatment for mesothelioma – usually with a combination of radiation and chemotherapy – is successful in extending the patient’s life for five years at a rate of 74.6% (Wikipedia). There are also alternative forms of therapy that can be used in conjunction with conventional treatments, that have been shown on occasion to decrease the size of mesothelioma found in a patient.

Asbestos was used for many years in a wide array of household and industrial products because of its multiple types and uses. It is fireproof, and can also be used as an insulator, thus allowing it to become very popular during the Industrial Revolution. It is unknown whether or not people were aware of the dangers of asbestos fibers at that time, but by the 1900′s the risk of asbestos was becoming more obvious. People who lived in mining towns would develop lung problems, and general studies showed that asbestos workers died at a young age. Asbestos, in an undisturbed state, seems to pose no threat. However, as soon as it becomes damaged or friable, the fibers are able to be ingested, thus potentially leading to these or other health problems. Although some companies were aware of this danger, they continued to work with products containing asbestos with no regard to their employees. These blatant injustices are the reason for the popularity of mesothelioma in the field of litigation.

Main Category: Asbestos / Mesothelioma
Also Included In: Lung Cancer; Respiratory / Asthma; Cancer / Oncology

In the past decades, asthma rates have increased dramatically, paralleling an increase in cesarean section births. The proportion of these procedures has increased from 5% in the 1970s to more than 30% in 2000. However, studies examining the potential link between asthma and cesarean delivery have been inconclusive.

About 3,000 children were followed until the age of 8 years with regard to respiratory health, and this data was compared to the methods of birth. At age 8, 12.4% (362) had been diagnosed with asthma and thus prescribed inhaled steroids. While only 8.5% (247) of the children were born by cesarean, but these children were nearly 80% more likely to have a diagnosis of asthma, in comparison to the children delivered naturally. This association between cesarean section and asthma was strengthened by the presence of two allergic parents, indicating a hereditary predisposition to asthma. In children with two allergic parents, cesarean-born children were 200% times more likely to be asthmatic, in comparison with children without allergic parents, who were 36% more likely.

The authors suggest that this association may be linked to the development of the immune system at birth. That is, a cesarean may prevent the baby from being exposed to certain microbes earlier in life. They also suggest that their findings are quite robust given the sample size, long period of followup, and the strict definition of asthma.

They say: “The increased rate of caesarean section is partly due to maternal demand without medical reason.” The authors continue: “In this situation the mother should be informed of the risk of asthma for her child, especially when the parents have a history of allergy or asthma.”

Asthma at 8 years of age in children born by caesarean section
C Roduit, S Scholtens, J C de Jongste, A H Wijga, J Gerritsen, DS Postma, B Brunekreef, MO Hoekstra, R Aalberse, H A Smit
Online First Thorax 2008;
doi 10.1136/thx.2008.100875

New research tracking the number of cases of childhood eczema across the globe has revealed big changes in the prevalence of the condition over the last five to ten years and suggests that environmental factors could be having a significant impact.

Research, by a team of allergy experts across the world, has shown a levelling off in the number of cases of eczema in children aged between 13 to 14 years and a decrease in some countries like the UK and New Zealand where childhood eczema was once highly prevalent. But a continuing rise in younger children aged between six and seven and in the number of cases reported in developing countries is of growing concern.

Their paper, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, suggests environmental factors are key for eczema expression because it is highly unlikely that genetic factors would change in such a short time.

Hywel Williams, Professor of Dermato-Epidemiology in the Centre of Evidence-Based Dermatology at The University of Nottingham, who led the eczema research, says eczema needs to be tackled at a public health level in many countries.

He says that moderate or severe cases of eczema have a significant impact on family life and carry an economic burden comparable with that of asthma. Constant scratching often leads to sleep deprivation which also affects carers as well as incurring significant financial costs.

Professor Williams and his international team analysed information from two worldwide surveys of asthma and allergy symptoms in children which was carried out by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in childhood (ISAAC) between 1991 and 2001. ISAAC was formed in 1991 to facilitate research into asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema by promoting a standardised methodology, and currently holds a Guinness World record for the largest epidemiological study in children.

Professor Williams and his team analysed over 300,000 children aged 13 to 14 years from 105 centres in 55 countries and nearly 190,000 children aged six to seven years from 64 centres in 35 countries.

The largest decreases in children aged between 13 to 14 years were seen in developed countries in northwest Europe, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Germany and also New Zealand. Professor Williams says this provides some reassurance that an allergic disease epidemic is not increasing inexorably throughout the world, and that a threshold effect may be in operation.

Most of the biggest increases in the 13 to 14 age group were seen in developing countries such as Mexico, Chile, Kenya and Algeria and in seven countries in Southeast Asia.

However, in six to seven year olds most countries showed significant increases over the five to ten year period.

Professor Williams said: “This is the first time we have been able to have a glimpse at what has been happening to eczema symptoms across the world using standardised methods. The results suggest that environmental factors are key to the expression of eczema – if only we could identify those factors so that we could prevent eczema in those countries experiencing significant increases.”

Although no singular environmental or genetic risk factor adequately explains the changes in eczema symptoms described in this paper Professor Williams does have some words of encouragement. He says there is already some evidence that eczema might be preventable to some degree and there is plenty of evidence on effective approaches to managing existing eczema symptoms. The way forward, he suggests, is for all public health responses to the eczema epidemic to ideally include an evaluative component so that others in the world can understand which approaches are more likely to be successful than others in different circumstances.

CCCEH’s DISCOVER grant was awarded because of groundbreaking research on the effects of early life exposure to common air pollutants the Center has performed since 1998. The new grant will advance the field of asthma research by deepening scientists’ understanding of how prenatal and early postnatal exposure to widespread contaminants in the air alters lung development and the immune system to produce asthma. In four related studies, CCCEH scientists will combine molecular, epidemiologic, experimental and clinical approaches to better prevent childhood asthma and improve clinical treatment of the disease.

CCCEH is one of the first research centers in the nation to receive a DISCOVER grant. Launched by NIEHS in 2006, the DISCOVER program has awarded grants to only three institutions nationwide: CCCEH, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Washington, Seattle.

“The DISCOVER centers will help to define the role of environmental agents in the initiation and progression of human disease and develop new ways to both prevent and treat disease,” said Dennis Lang, Ph.D., interim director, NIEHS Division of Extramural Research and Training, as he announced the new awards. “The potential impact of the research that these three centers will be conducting is enormous.”

Since 1998, CCCEH has conducted significant research linking early exposure to ambient air pollution from sources such as diesel and gasoline powered vehicles and power plants to children’s risk for asthma and asthma exacerbation. CCCEH’s research in New York City and internationally in Poland and China finds that in utero and postnatal exposure to particulates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from diesel exhaust and other urban combustion sources adversely affects children’s neurocognitive development and increases potential cancer risk. The Center has also identified in utero exposure to residential pesticides as harmful to neurocognitive development.

CCCEH’s scientific research is raising public awareness, improving children’s environmental health, and influencing public policies. The Center’s award-winning Healthy Home Healthy Child campaign, developed in collaboration with WE ACT for Environmental Justice, educates inner-city families about practical ways to reduce children’s exposure to pollutants. The Center and WE ACT’s joint translation of scientific research findings to improve environmental policies helped to pass legislation that lowered New York City’s diesel exhaust emissions and neurotoxic pesticide exposure throughout public housing.

The four studies CCCEH will conduct with its DISCOVER funds are as follows:

* Project 1, “Time Windows of Asthma Vulnerability,” directed by CCCEH’s lead asthma expert Dr. Rachel Miller, seeks to determine at what point in their development young inner-city children are most vulnerable to diesel-related and other urban air pollution. The results will serve to clarify the relationship between exposure to air pollution, obesity and an increase in allergy and asthma-related symptoms. Project 1 also will monitor the impact of recent policy changes on children’s exposure to traffic-related air pollution to determine if there is a correlation between reduced urban air pollution and children’s health. CCCEH anticipates that results from the study can be used to advise parents on reducing the risk of childhood asthma, and by physicians to clarify the role of pollutants in asthma.

* Project 2, “New Air Sampling Technology,” directed by Dr. Patrick L. Kinney, will collect data from asthmatic and non-asthmatic children wearing a unique air sampling system in order to monitor how exposure to diesel exhaust can worsen asthma symptoms. Researchers expect the study will uncover usable health information for physicians, parents and communities by identifying specific air pollutants and sources as triggers of asthma.

* Project 3, “Genes and Asthma,” directed by Dr. Frederica Perera in collaboration with Dr. Shuk Mei Ho of the Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati, will determine whether biomarkers, such as environmentally-related changes in the expression of specific genes in utero, can predict childhood asthma. The goal is to develop clinically relevant biomarkers that would identify children at high risk of asthma. While previous studies conducted by the Center have shown that prenatal exposure to air pollutants can contribute to childhood asthma, exact mechanisms and early warning indicators have not been determined. This project aims to fill this gap in knowledge.

But the emergence of dangerous, multi-drug resistant strains of tuberculosis and other killer infections means that in the 21st century antibiotics are losing ground against bacterial disease.

Now, researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City say exciting new molecular targets — so-called “virulence factors” that bacteria use to thrive once they are in the host — present an alternative, potent means of stopping TB, leprosy and other bacterial illness.

“We have developed the first inhibitor of a key small molecule from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae (which causes leprosy) utilized to subvert human host’s defenses and damage and invade human host’s cells during infection,” explains study senior author Dr. Luis Quadri, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell.

“With this work, we now have proof of principle for the inhibition of this virulence factor in bacteria cultured in the lab. Our next step is to explore whether this inhibitor can stop these pathogens from multiplying in a mouse host, curtailing infection,” Dr. Quadri says.

The findings — published online in Chemistry and Biology and appearing in the journal’s Jan. 26 print edition — highlight what Dr. Quadri has called a “paradigm shift” in infectious disease research.

“We are moving beyond antimicrobials such as antibiotics, which kill the bacterium directly, to anti-infectives, that may have no effect against the pathogen in the test tube but which do compromise its ability to infect and spread in the host,” he explains. “We believe that the expansion of the drug armamentarium to include such anti-infective drugs could help the fight against multi-drug resistant infection that has become such a challenge today.”

According to World Health Organization data, TB remains one of the world’s top-ten leading causes of death, killing nearly two million people each year. Multi-drug resistant strains of M. tuberculosis — as well as even more dangerous, extensive-drug-resistant (XDR) strains of the bug — are emerging each year.

“Obviously, we are going to require more than the traditional antimicrobial approach to turn this situation around,” Dr. Quadri says.

In this study, Dr. Quadri, along with co-lead researchers Drs. Julian Ferraras and Karen Stirrett, focused on particular small-molecule virulence factors called phenolic glycolipids (PGLs).

Various strains of M. tuberculosis use PGLs to weaken our body defenses whereas M. leprae uses PGLs to damage and invade our nerve cells during infection.

“Therefore, we hypothesize that drugs blocking PGL synthesis would reduce the adaptive fitness of PGL-producing M. tuberculosis strains in the human host by eliminating PGL-dependent immunomodulatory effects. These drugs may also diminish the ability of M. leprae to invade nerve cells and produce nerve function impairment,” Dr. Quadri explains.

In complex work in the laboratory, the researchers investigated and then elucidated a crucial, early step in PGL biosynthesis. They also pinpointed a key enzyme, called FadD22, that is essential to that stage of the process.

“Based on that, we collaborated with Dr. Derek Tan’s lab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to synthesize a molecule that targets FadD22 and successfully inhibits that early step in PGL production,” Dr. Quadri said.

Follow-up work using both enzyme assays and M. tuberculosis assays confirmed that the new inhibitor does block the production of PGLs. Although it was technically not possible to test the inhibitor in M. leprae, that pathogen is very closely related to M. tuberculosis, so the researchers believe their agent would inhibit production of PGLs there, as well.

Work is already underway to come up with other, even more potent PGL biosynthesis inhibitors, Dr. Quadri says, with an eye to testing the best candidates in an animal model.

“We are not saying that anti-infectives will ever replace antibiotics, but with pathogens as deadly as M. tuberculosis or as debilitating as M. leprae, you’d ideally like to have as many pharmaceutical weapons in your armamentarium as you can, to use either alone or in combination,” Dr. Quadri says.

The new discoveries are highly encouraging, he adds.

“I believe that drugs targeting virulence factors are just one component of the paradigm shift in the antimicrobial drug discovery for the 21st century — one that will offer patients more options in the fight against truly global killers,” he says.

This research was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation, NYSTAR Watson Investigator Program, William H. Goodwin and Alice Goodwin, the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research and MSKCC Experimental Therapeutics Center.

Co-researchers include Xuequan Lu of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City; Jae-Sang Ryu, now at Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul, S. Korea; and Clifford E. Soll, Hunter College, New York City.

Weill Cornell Medical College

Weill Cornell Medical College — Cornell University’s Medical School located in New York City — is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Weill Cornell, which is a principal academic affiliate of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, offers an innovative curriculum that integrates the teaching of basic and clinical sciences, problem-based learning, office-based preceptorships, and primary care and doctoring courses. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research in such areas as stem cells, genetics and gene therapy, geriatrics, neuroscience, structural biology, cardiovascular medicine, infectious disease, obesity, cancer, psychiatry and public health — and continue to delve ever deeper into the molecular basis of disease in an effort to unlock the mysteries behind the human body and the malfunctions that result in serious medical disorders. The Medical College — in its commitment to global health and education — has a strong presence in such places as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. With the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical School is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances — from the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer to the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease, the first indication of bone marrow’s critical role in tumor growth, and, most recently, the world’s first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally-conscious brain-injured patient. For more information, visit http://www.med.cornell.edu.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
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http://www.nyp.org

Results of their research work are published in the last issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (176(12):1261-8). This study has had the collaboration of basic researchers, such as Dr. Anna Serrano-Mollar, and Dr. Oriol Bulbena, first and last signatories of the study; and researchers with a clinical background, such as Dr. Antoni Xaubet, from the Unit of Pneumology of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. This turns this work into a paradigm of translational research promoted in IDIBAPS and through other initiatives such as the Network of Centres of Biomedical Research (CIBERs). This research work has been financed through a contribution from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

Gas exchange is developed in lungs thanks to type 1 pneumocytes in alveoli, cells recovering the inner walls of the alveolar cavity. Occupying the same spaces, there are also type II pneumocytes, precursor cells that repair the damaged alveolar tissue. When idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis appears, this regeneration process cannot be developed correctly and fibrosis advances until respiration is impossible. The technique developed by researchers from the IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS consists in a transplantation of type II pneumocytes via intratracheal. In order to monitor correctly the transplanted cells with genetic and fluorescence techniques, sexual chromosomal differences were used. Thus, the disease was induced in female rats, and cells from male rats were transplanted. This is a lowly invasive technique which has permitted to regenerate, for the first time, rat fibrotic alveoli where idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was induced.

CSIC has patented as a treatment the cell suspension transplanted with this innovative strategy. The world patent will be proved in humans with a clinical study, soon conducted in the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona thanks to the financing of the Fundación Genoma España and CSIC This study will have the participation of 6 recently diagnosed patients who will receive a suspension of type II pneumocytes coming from a dead donor, since these cells cannot be cultured in the laboratory. All this events throw new and hopeful light into basic and clinical research lines. One of the following steps of researchers will be to try to obtain type II pneumocytes from adult stem cells.

According to Graham, “regional regulatory monopolies drive up health costs by making their residents pay for expensive mandates that benefit determined interest groups at society’s expense,” and state governments “also drive up health costs and taxes in less-regulated states because over-regulated states continuously lobby the federal government for more money to bandage their self-inflicted wounds.”

He writes that the “federal government’s out-of-control spending” on Medicaid and SCHIP “bails out states that drive private health insurance premiums sky high through overregulation.” As a result, “residents of states where health insurance is still affordable should be just as outraged as those in overregulated jurisdictions” and support the legislation, Graham adds (Graham, Wall Street Journal, 12/20).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

A number of therapeutic drug classes are currently under investigation as candidates for delivery via inhalation devices. These drug classes encompass a broad range of conditions and ailments, including osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, and blood disorders.

The rising potential of dry powder inhalation is being driven by escalating research activity in powder formulations, advances in particle engineering, and the development of novel device architectures. The combination of improved particle properties and more efficient inhaler designs is creating new opportunities for dry powder inhalation and expanding the range of active compounds that can be effectively delivered via the lung.

Much of the interest for the pulmonary delivery of systemic drug therapies is focused on so-called large molecule drugs, such as polypeptides and proteins. Small molecule APIs can typically be administered orally, and the opportunity they represent for inhalation is thus less attractive. While small molecule drugs are most often synthesized, large molecule drugs most often originate from biological substances that have undergone harvesting and purification.

For inhalation device suppliers and their drug partners, understanding the concerns, preferences, and limitations of consumers to self-medicate via inhalation will be the driving force for future-generation inhaler designs and spell the difference between successful ventures in this market and entities that will fail to prosper in spite of highly favorable market dynamics.

These findings are contained in a new and comprehensive report: Dry Powder Inhalation: Drugs, Devices, And Delivery Therapeutics. The report includes comprehensive assessments of dry powder inhalation technology, profiles of dry powder inhalation market participants, industry data and forecasts, and detailed analysis of design and economic factors.

About Greystone

Greystone Associates is a medical and healthcare technology consulting firm providing services in strategic planning, venture development, product commercialization, and technology and market assessment.

http://www.greystoneassociates.org

This Phase I study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in healthy adult volunteers to assess the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of inhaled ALN-RSV01 administered via nebulizer. All major objectives of the trial were met, including definition of a safe and well-tolerated dose and regimen for advancement of ALN-RSV01 into further Phase II development.

“These results put us firmly into Phase II development with the ongoing experimental infection study, and now with a planned multi-dose inhalational Phase II strategy in naturally infected adults,” said Akshay Vaishnaw, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President, Clinical Research of Alnylam. “With these data in hand, and the upcoming Phase II data expected in the first quarter of 2008, we are excited about the continued development of this novel RNAi therapeutic.”

In total, 109 subjects were enrolled in the Phase I trial; 71 were exposed to drug and 38 to placebo. Both single and multiple doses were evaluated, ranging from the equivalent of 0.1 mg/kg to 3 mg/kg in the single dose arm, and 0.01 mg/kg to 0.6 mg/kg, administered once daily for 3 days in the multi-dose arm. Data showed that the efficiency of delivery of ALN-RSV01 delivered via inhalation, as measured by plasma levels, was significantly greater in humans than observed pre-clinically. Adverse events reported for both drug and placebo were predominantly mild; there were no severe or serious adverse events. In the single dose arm, a mild to moderate flu-like adverse event was observed at the higher doses. This was found to be transient and was potentially linked to the enhanced efficiency of delivery. In the multi-dose arm, daily doses up to 0.6 mg/kg for 3 days were found to be safe and well tolerated, pointing to a dose and regimen of ALN-RSV01 for further Phase II evaluation.

Other updates from the presentation in Edinburgh included the following.

- New Pharmacology Data. Previous pre-clinical data had shown the ability of a single dose of ALN-RSV01 to potently reduce virus load in a mouse RSV model. Additional pre-clinical data reported today now significantly extend these observations. Comparison of multi-dose and single dose ALN-RSV01 treatment paradigms demonstrated that a multi-dose regimen (once daily for 3 days) is significantly more efficacious than a single dose, for the same total amount of drug.

- Ongoing Phase II Experimental Infection Study with ALN-RSV01. The company announced today that the Phase II study in experimentally infected adult volunteers is now fully enrolled with 88 subjects and top-line data are expected early in the first quarter 2008.

“In addition to our Phase I inhalational data, we are particularly encouraged by the new complementary pre-clinical data demonstrating enhanced anti-viral activity for ALN-RSV01 administered in multiple doses,” said Sara Nochur, Ph.D., Vice President, Regulatory Affairs of Alnylam and RSV Program Leader. “Indeed, our current Phase II study of ALN-RSV01 in experimentally infected subjects, that has now completed enrollment and remains blinded, has incorporated the use of a multi-dose treatment both prior to and after viral inoculation.”

“I am excited by the rapid progress that has been made with ALN-RSV01, as there is significant need for a novel therapy to treat RSV, a serious viral infection that hospitalizes over 320,000 pediatric and adult patients in the U.S. annually,” said John P. DeVincenzo, M.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. “These new inhalational tolerability data greatly extend our understanding of ALN-RSV01 and add to the existing encouraging safety profile via the intranasal route. In aggregate, the significant safety database supports continued Phase II development of ALN-RSV01 in RSV-infected children and adults.”

About RNA Interference (RNAi)

RNAi (RNA interference) is a revolution in biology, representing a breakthrough in understanding how genes are turned on and off in cells, and a completely new approach to drug discovery and development. Its discovery has been heralded as “a major scientific breakthrough that happens once every decade or so,” and represents one of the most promising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and drug discovery today which was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. RNAi is a natural process of gene silencing that occurs in organisms ranging from plants to mammals. By harnessing the natural biological process of RNAi occurring in our cells, the creation of a major new class of medicines, known as RNAi therapeutics, is on the horizon. RNAi therapeutics target the cause of diseases by potently silencing specific messenger RNAs (mRNAs), thereby preventing disease-causing proteins from being made. RNAi therapeutics have the potential to treat disease and help patients in a fundamentally new way.

About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Alnylam is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on 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 leading the translation of RNAi as a new class of innovative medicines with peer-reviewed research efforts published in the world’s top scientific journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, and Cell. The company is leveraging these capabilities to build a broad pipeline of RNAi therapeutics; its most advanced program is in Phase II human clinical trials for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. In addition, the company is developing RNAi therapeutics for the treatment of influenza, hypercholesterolemia, and liver cancers, among other diseases. 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 Medtronic, Novartis, Biogen Idec, and Roche. The company, founded in 2002, maintains headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, visit http://www.alnylam.com.

Alnylam Forward-Looking Statements

Various statements in this release concerning Alnylam’s future expectations, plans and prospects, including without limitation statements concerning the commencement of clinical trials and studies, the availability of results of clinical trials and studies, the need for novel RSV therapeutics, the expected formulation for an RSV therapeutic, and our views with respect to the potential for RNAi therapeutics, including ALN-RSV01, 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: Alnylam’s approach to discover and develop novel drugs, which is unproven and may never lead to marketable products; obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property; Alnylam’s ability to enforce its patents against infringers and to defend its patent portfolio against challenges from third parties; Alnylam’s ability to obtain additional funding to support its business activities; Alnylam’s dependence on third parties for development, manufacture, marketing, sales and distribution of products; obtaining regulatory approval for products; competition from others using technology similar to Alnylam’s and others developing products for similar uses; Alnylam’s dependence on collaborators; and Alnylam’s short operating history; as well as those risks more fully discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of its most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent Alnylam’s views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Alnylam does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.