Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Sapna Srivastava with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Dave – Morgan Stanley
Hi, thanks. It’s Dave [ph] calling in for Sapna.
John Maraganore
Hi, Dave, how are you?
Dave – Morgan Stanley
Good. How are you doing?
John Maraganore
Good.
Dave – Morgan Stanley
Just a quick question – actually two questions. The first was, in terms of the RSV program, I think it was my previous understanding that you were going to potentially start the pediatric inpatient trial before the lung transplant trial completed. I was wondering just if you could go into any more detail about if that’s a change and whether the FDA would have permitted you to do that if you wanted to, or whether that was sort of a deal breaker for them.
John Maraganore
Let me – yes, go ahead. And what’s your second question?
Dave – Morgan Stanley
The second question is just about the Glover patent in terms of what happened there and what’s the process from now going forward, and if you could just remind me whether the Glover patent is approved anywhere else besides Europe.
John Maraganore
Okay. Let me answer the second question first and then I’ll segue into the first question. So the Glover patent was a party to an opposition process that occurred in Europe over the quarter and resulted in the granted claims in Europe being overturned during the opposition proceeding, the oral opposition proceeding. We are going to appeal that decision by the European Patent Office and the opposition court of the European Patent Office. And typically about 50% of appeals result in the patent being restored back to its original grant. David Glover's work and the work of Zeneca Gess [ph] et al was actually quite important in the field as it relates to early discoveries of the role of RNAi therapeutics in oocyte mammalian systems. And so we think it’s meritorious scientifically. I urge people to read the actual scientific paper that was first published related to that work. And we think that it will, in fact, be upheld upon the appeal proceedings that take place. That proceedings, David, as you probably know, takes some time. Europe has certainly a longer time period in patent prosecution and typically has this opposition appeal-type procedure that takes place. So we’re very confident about it. But I think very importantly and contextually, for Alnylam, Glover is only one of many patents that have been issued or granted in Europe or any other jurisdiction that we very much view our patent estate as a very significant picket fence and this is just one picket in many regards. But we’re optimistic about where that will go. Now regarding your first question, regarding the RSV program, let me – I’ll have Akshay comment very specifically in just a minute. But I think the key point here is that we think we’re going to learn something from the adult study that will very helpful to how we advance and how rapidly we advance with the pediatric study. And this has come out of both internal discussions, but also discussions with the FDA. So, Akshay, do you want to comment any further?
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