When AstraZeneca on Friday detailed the failed trial of its drug Wainua in a heart condition known as ATTR-CM, the bad news, according to one school of thought, extended to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. 

Some analysts interpreted the study’s miss as a broad sign that silencers — the kind of medicine that Alnylam sells and that AstraZeneca was testing — offered no added benefits if patients were already on another kind of drug known as a stabilizer, and as an indication that stabilizers might be superior.

Now, Alnylam is mounting a defense of its silencers, with ramifications both for its marketed drug Amvuttra, and for its next-gen treatment nucresiran. 

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