Alnylam Pharmaceuticals said it will invest about USD 250 million to expand its manufacturing facility in Norton, Massachusetts, adding what the company describes as the industry’s first fully dedicated siRNA enzymatic ligation production platform (siRELIS™) to support growing global demand for RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics. The expanded capability is intended to substantially increase production capacity for current and future RNAi medicines and reduce manufacturing costs.
The investment will upgrade the company’s existing 200,000-square-foot Norton site, originally opened in 2021, to locally produce both clinical and commercial supplies of siRNA drug substances for global distribution. Alnylam said the enzymatic ligation platform has been accepted into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Emerging Technology Program, which can facilitate regulatory engagement on innovative manufacturing approaches for oligonucleotide-based therapies.
Alnylam noted that this expanded manufacturing capacity is expected to support future launches across its expanding pipeline, which includes investigational RNAi therapeutics being developed in multiple disease areas, and that it could enable broader production of emerging medicines aimed at conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and obesity. The company expects the new enzymatic ligation platform to be fully operational by late 2027 as construction progresses.
The move underscores Alnylam’s strategy to scale its internal manufacturing infrastructure in response to increasing demand for RNAi drugs worldwide and strengthen the Norton site’s role in advancing the company’s drug development and supply capabilities.
