Re: If MDCO gets a buyout, good or bad for Alnylam?
It is not uncommon for a successful drug to have up to 80% gross profit margin. At 80% gross profit, Alnylam gets only 20% while MDCO gets 60%. It is quite obvious the deal between Alnylam and MDCO is not very well balanced and JM is not happy about it irrespective of what he says publicly. JM is not the kind of guy who would let this kind of profit to slip away from his hand.
I don't know the details of agreement between Alnylam and MDCO. But I believe Alnylam has granted MDCO a license to a particular compound that they have developed targeting PCSK9 gene but not the PCSK9 gene target itself. That may give him an opening to develop another more potent PCK9 compound (like TTRsc02) and use it in combination with some other gene like APOC3 to try to recapture the market dominated by PCSK9 drugs. I don't rule out potential future conflict between Alnylam and MDCO. Partnership is always troublesome when agreements are not fair to all the partners.