Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is investing $250 million to boost its manufacturing capabilities in Norton, Massachusetts. This investment aims to enhance the production of RNAi therapeutics, a new class of medicines. The company’s goal is to make its Norton site the first fully dedicated facility for producing these innovative treatments. RNAi therapeutics work by turning off specific genes that cause diseases. The investment will support the addition of a new manufacturing platform called siRELIS, which has been accepted into the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) emerging technology program. This platform is expected to increase manufacturing capacity and lower production costs. Yvonne Greenstreet, the CEO of Alnylam, stated that this expansion is crucial for scaling up the production of potential treatments for diseases like hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. The siRELIS platform was accepted into the FDA’s program after successfully producing pilot batches of zilebesiran, a medicine for cardiovascular diseases that Alnylam is developing with Roche. This FDA decision will speed up Alnylam’s discussions with global health authorities about new manufacturing methods for these advanced medicines. Timothy Maines, the Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer at Alnylam, highlighted that manufacturing these medicines is complex and the current technology may not meet future demand. The new platform offers a more efficient and high-quality production process. This expansion presents an opportunity to revolutionize the manufacturing of these advanced medicines.