Alnylam Cancels Conference... What's Brewing? (ALNY)

We just saw a report out of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY) that may get traders moving on both sides of the stock.  The company has just announced that management will not be presenting at the Bank of America 2008 Specialty Pharmaceuticals Conference on August 8, 2008, as previously scheduled. The company’s planned update on its scientific platform and delivery approaches will be presented at another investor conference in the near future.

Unfortunately, you can take two sides of this.  Sometimes people lookat a conference cancellation as a hint that negative data or somethingbad has hit the company radar.   But the flip-side and a plausibleargument that biotech traders might take is that this could mean thecompany is engaged in some sort of talks with an outside party.

We are in the midst of a biotech consolidation wave, so anything ispossible.  Before creating a tempest in a tea kettle, just keep in mindthat this could also be nothing more than a scheduling conflict or anextended vacation conflicting with this Friday’s presentation.

This closed down 1.6% at $34.81 in regular trading.  After-hourstrading has been very thin but we have seen a print up at $36.00 sincethis release came out.

Jon C. Ogg
August 4, 2008