ALNYLAM AND CENIX BIOSCIENCE ENTER INTO RESEARCH ALLIANCE
AND LICENSING AGREEMENT IN RNA INTERFERENCE

Cambridge, MA and Dresden, Germany – January 13, 2004 – Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the leading RNAi therapeutics company, and Cenix BioScience GmbH, the premier provider of advanced RNAi research services, today announced that they have entered into a research alliance and licensing agreement. Under the terms of the agreement executed through Ribopharma AG, the German affiliate of Alnylam, Cenix was granted a non-exclusive license to market research services under a fundamental patent in RNA interference (RNAi), and will pay annual fees and royalties on sales of licensed services. Alnylam will also benefit from Cenix’s leading expertise in the design and testing of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). The patent licensed to Cenix under the new agreement is the first and only issued patent covering the use of short double-stranded RNAs to mediate RNAi.

“This alliance represents a significant step forward for both companies in realizing the enormous potential of RNAi”, said John Maraganore, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Alnylam. “We expect the services offered by Cenix to further establish RNAi as the leading tool for target discovery and validation, and look forward to collaborating with them on the design and testing of siRNAs for our own therapeutic programs.”

“Through this alliance, we will begin realizing the strong synergies that exist between Cenix and Alnylam in the field of RNAi research”, said Christophe Echeverri, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Cenix. “As a first step, we particularly look forward to working with Alnylam to advance their leading efforts in the therapeutic application of RNAi.”

About RNAi
RNA interference, or RNAi, is a naturally occurring mechanism within cells for selectively silencing specific genes, an ability that could become the basis for a whole new class of therapeutic products. The discovery of RNAi has been heralded by many as a major breakthrough, and Science Magazine named RNAi the top scientific achievement of 2002 as well as one of the top ten scientific advances of 2003. Because many diseases are caused by the inappropriate activity of specific genes, the ability to silence such genes selectively through RNAi could provide a means to treat a wide range of human diseases. The RNAi mechanism was recently discovered, in part, by the scientific founders of Alnylam, who showed that RNAi is mediated by a molecule known as a small interfering RNA, or siRNA, and that chemically-synthesized siRNAs made in the laboratory can be introduced into cells and silence the activity of specific genes. Alnylam is developing chemically-synthesized siRNAs as potential drugs for a variety of diseases.

About Alnylam
Alnylam, the leading RNAi therapeutics company, is harnessing the natural mechanism of RNAi to build a deep pipeline of products with the potential to treat a wide range of human diseases. Growing from its foundation as the world's first company focused on RNAi therapeutics, the company is built around the leading capabilities of its two operating units, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Ribopharma AG of Kulmbach, Germany. The company's leadership in the field of RNAi is supported by its preeminent founders and advisors and its strengths in fundamental patents, technology, and know-how that underlie the commercialization of RNAi therapeutics. The company's focus is to develop a pipeline of RNAi products using both Direct RNAi™ and Systemic RNAi™ approaches to treat a broad range of diseases, including central nervous system, metabolic, ocular, viral, oncologic, and autoimmune diseases. The company’s global headquarters are in Cambridge, MA. For more information, please visit http://www.alnylam.com.

About Cenix
Cenix BioScience GmbH is a pioneering leader in genome-based high throughput (HT) applications of RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) for the discovery and validation of new therapeutic drug targets. Founded in 1999 as the first biotechnology company specializing exclusively in HT-RNAi, Cenix has accumulated unparalleled depth and breadth of experience in this field, combining high content phenotypic analyses with proprietary genome-wide RNAi libraries for use in key experimental systems including human cells, Drosophila and C. elegans. Cenix is now making its unique expertise accessible to industry and academic researchers through fully customized research service offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.cenix.com.

Contacts:
For Alnylam:
Vincent J. Miles, Ph.D.	Kathryn Morris
Senior Vice President, Business Development	KMorris PR 845-635-9828
Alnylam
617-252-0700 ext. 2330
For Cenix:
Zisi Fotev, Ph.D.	Ellen Fuerst
Chief Business Officer	Public Relations
Cenix BioScience GmbH	Cenix BioScience GmbH
+49-351-210-2640	Tel: +49 (0) 351 210-2511
fotev@cenix.com	fuerst@cenix.com