The Cambridge, Mass.-based company's shares soared 18.8 percent in late October, closing at $19.72, the day Sirna said Merck was offering $1.1 billion for the San Francisco company. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 1, 2006.)

Since then, Alnylam's stock (NASDAQ:ALNY) has continued to rise. It jumped another $1.02 last Wednesday, to end the day at $23.10.

The most recent offering includes the sale of about 4.7 million shares at $22 each. Banc of America Securities LLC, of New York, is the sole underwriter. The offering is expected to close Friday.

"We conducted this raise in order to leverage and build on the momentum" of the RNAi therapeutic field, said Barry Greene, Alnylam's chief operating officer.

Proceeds are expected to go toward general corporate purposes, including research and development expenses, clinical trial costs, general and administrative expenses and potential acquisitions that would complement the business.

Alnylam develops therapeutics based on RNA interference (RNAi), a naturally occurring mechanism within cells for selectively silencing and regulating specific genes known to cause diseases. If the company is successful, its methods would offer a new way to treat several disorders, and RNAi therapeutics could become as popular as small-molecule, protein and antibody drugs.

"We've seen amazing progress by Alnylam and others demonstrating the ability to deliver RNAi therapeutics from a dramatic number of in vivo settings," Greene told BioWorld Today. He cited the recent achievement of delivering the therapies to non-human primates, which resulted in a pharmacological effect that essentially "de-risks the overall field."

The company's lead RNAi therapeutic is in Phase I trials to treat human respiratory syncytial virus infection. Data should be presented in the first half of 2007. In preclinical work, Alnylam is focused on central nervous system diseases, including Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, neuropathic pain, spinal cord injury and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The company also is focused on its Systemic RNAi programs in hypercholesterolemia in which RNAi therapeutics could travel through the bloodstream to reach diseased parts of the body. The hypercholesterolemia product will be the subject of Alnylam's second clinical development program. The company expects to submit an investigational new drug application in 2007.

Despite Merck's proposed buyout of Sirna, Alnylam has a different perspective on its future. "Our interest is to build a long-term and extremely valuable product company based upon this breakthrough in biology of RNA interference," Greene said. "While the recent acquisition was certainly value-accretive for a company" and while it highlights big pharma's interest in the field, "we believe the value that we can build for our shareholders as a standalone company far exceeds the value that we've seen to date."

He expects Alnylam will form several more collaborations in a variety of areas to help build that value. The company already has alliances with Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck; Medtronic Inc., of Minneapolis; Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland; and Biogen Idec Inc., of Cambridge, Mass. Two deals with Merck, signed in 2003 and 2004, focus on developing RNAi compounds against Merck targets and more specifically, for ocular diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 10, 2003, and July 1, 2004.)

The Novartis deal was signed earlier this year and is focused on developing RNAi therapeutics for pandemic flu, while the Medtronic deal completed in 2005 centers on neurodegenerative diseases. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 10, 2005, and Feb. 22, 2006.)

The most recent deal with Biogen Idec potentially is worth $56 million. The companies are working to discover RNAi-based treatments for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, which is linked in rare cases to the use of Biogen's multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 22, 2006.)

Alnylam merged with German firm Ribopharma AG in July 2003. (See BioWorld Today, July 8, 2003.)

Alnylam will have about 37 million shares outstanding following the offering. With $115 million in cash projected for the end of 2006, as well as $101 million from this offering, Alnylam is on "solid ground for many years," Greene said.

In other financings:

• Acusphere Inc., of Watertown, Mass., closed its registered direct offering resulting in net proceeds of about $23.8 million. The company issued 9.3 million units, with each unit consisting of one share of common stock and one warrant to buy 0.4 shares of common stock at $3.11 per share for a purchase price of $2.75 per unit. The warrants will be exercisable beginning June 12, 2007, and until Dec. 12, 2011.

• Biomira Inc., of Edmonton, Alberta, arranged a financing of about $13 million with Rodman & Renshaw LLC as exclusive placement agent. The financing is expected to close within the next few days and is subject to regulatory approval. Biomira is offering up to 9.6 million units, with each unit consisting of one common share and 0.20 of a warrant, at an issue price of $1.35. In addition, about 96,000 compensation warrants will be issued to the placement agents. Each warrant will entitle the holder to buy one common share at $1.86 each.

• EntreMed Inc., of Rockville, Md., obtained commitments to buy shares of its common stock in a registered direct offering for gross proceeds of about $17.2 million. The company will sell up to 10.7 million shares at $1.60 each to select institutional investors. The offering is expected to close by Monday. The company intends to use the net proceeds to fund its research and development programs and their related costs, including conducting clinical trials of its product candidates. ThinkEquity Partners LLC acted as lead placement agent and Rodman & Renshaw LLC acted as co-placement agent in connection with the transaction.

• ERA Biotech, of Barcelona, Spain, concluded a €1.4 million (US$1.9 million) financing, which was led by Invertec, Reus Capital Riesgo, Talde Capital II and Univest. The company will use the funds to continue the commercial deployment of its bioproductivity manufacturing solutions, to augment the downstream processing gains they deliver and to initiate product development.

• Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, completed its public offering of 13.2 million shares of common stock, including the 1.7 million shares purchased by underwriters to cover overallotments, for net proceeds of about $165.1 million. CIBC World Markets Corp. is acting as sole book-running manager, with Cowen and Co. LLC and Piper Jaffray & Co. serving as co-lead managers and Needham & Co. LLC, Leerink Swann & Co. Inc., Fortis Securities LLC, Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc. and Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acting as co-managers. Funds will support clinical and preclinical work, discovery and general corporate purposes. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 11, 2006.)

• ConjuGon Inc., of Madison, Wis., raised $3.3 million in an investment round led by Rosetta Partners, with participation from Wisconsin Investment Partners. Funds will be used to advance the company's lead therapeutic, a treatment for large wound infections, into the clinic and to support development and testing of additional products aimed at antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. ConjuGon named several members to its board: Gary Greenwood, of Rosetta Partners; Anthony Clemento; Alicia Loffler; Tom Rolfs, of Red Top Capital and Carl Spalding.