UPDATE 1-Alnylam ties up with Kyowa on respiratory drug in Asia

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TOKYO, June 19 (Reuters) - U.S. biotech firm Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc (ALNY.O) has formed an alliance with Japan's Kyowa Hakko Kogyo (4151.T) to develop and commercialise a respiratory drug in Asia.

Alnylam said in a release that the exclusive deal was for a drug called ALN-RSV01, an RNAi drug in Phase II clinical development for treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a widespread respiratory infection that affects infants, the elderly and some others.

"There's a very significant unmet need," Jason Rhodes, Vice President of Business Development of Alnylam, told Reuters in a telephone interview, noting the widespread global infection.

"There are 18 million infections and 1 million hospitalisations (annually), and there's currently no real treatment that's used."

Rhodes said the company planned to develop the product for both pediatric and adult patients, and hopes to begin a pediatric trial "most likely by the end of the year."

RNAi, or RNA interference, is one of the hottest areas of biotechnology research and has attracted investment from many big drugmakers. The technology is designed to silence genes responsible for producing disease-causing proteins.

Rhodes said that treatments currently available are prophylactics which aim to prevent infection but that there is little that can be done once the patient is infected except treat the symptoms.

Under the deal, which is exclusive for the product and for Asia, Kyowa Hakko will pay Alnylam $15 million in an upfront cash payment and up to an additional $78 million in development and sales milestone payments, Alnylam said in the release.

Kyowa Hakko is majority-owned by Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings Co (2503.T).

Alnylam last month joined Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (4502.T) in a strategic alliance on new approaches to discover treatments for cancer and metabolic diseases.

Kyowa Hakko's shares ended down 1.3 percent at 1,014 yen on Thursday, compared with a 2.2 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei share average .N225. (Reporting by Elaine Lies and Nathan Layne; Editing by Hugh Lawson)