On January 4, 2022 Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), the leading RNAi therapeutics company, reported that Akshay Vaishnaw, M.D., Ph.D. has been appointed President. Dr. Vaishnaw joined Alnylam in 2006 as Vice President, Clinical Research with roles of increasing responsibility, ultimately serving as President of Research and Development (R&D) (Press release, Alnylam, JAN 4, 2022, View Source [SID1234598046]). In this new role, Dr. Vaishnaw will serve as the key scientific leader of Alnylam and will advance the Company’s R&D strategy focused on sustainable innovation.
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"Akshay has been at the helm of driving the science and innovation at Alnylam for the past 16 years, and that effort has yielded an entirely new class of medicines. In this newly expanded role, Akshay will become the Company’s key scientific leader, focused on advancing our R&D engine which is the lifeblood of how we have and will continue to drive our research and development programs into transformative medicines," said Yvonne Greenstreet, MBChB, Chief Executive Officer at Alnylam. "This promotion is a testament that science will remain at the heart of our company and continue to enable us to deliver long term value. We are fortunate to have such a talented and capable scientific leader helping us achieve our Alnylam P5x25 goals."
"It has been the pleasure of my career to support Alnylam becoming a multi-product, global organization with a deep and rich pipeline," said Dr. Vaishnaw. "We are excited about the opportunity for RNAi therapeutics in rare and common diseases utilizing liver and extrahepatic delivery to realize the greatest potential for this new class of medicines in human health. I’m thrilled to continue delivering sustainable innovation and participate in building Alnylam for the future."
Dr. Vaishnaw joined Alnylam in 2006 as Vice President, Clinical Research and has then subsequently served in various R&D roles with increasing responsibility. Dr. Vaishnaw most recently served as the President of R&D. Prior to 2006, he was at Biogen as Senior Director, Translational Medicine. Dr. Vaishnaw received his M.D. from the University of Wales College of Medicine, U.K., and Ph.D. from the University of London, U.K., in Molecular Immunology. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, U.K. Dr. Vaishnaw is a member of the Board of Directors for Editas Medicine Inc. and Scholar Rock Inc. From 2014-2018, he served as a Board member of Visterra, Inc.
About RNAi Therapeutics
RNAi (RNA interference) is a natural cellular process of gene silencing that represents one of the most promising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and drug development today. Its discovery has been heralded as "a major scientific breakthrough that happens once every decade or so," and was recognized with the award of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. By harnessing the natural biological process of RNAi occurring in our cells, Alnylam developed a new class of medicines known as RNAi therapeutics is now a reality. Small interfering RNA (siRNA), the molecules that mediate RNAi and comprise Alnylam’s RNAi therapeutic platform, function upstream of today’s medicines by potently silencing messenger RNA (mRNA) – the genetic precursors – that encode for disease-causing or disease pathway proteins, thus preventing them from being made. This is a revolutionary approach with the potential to transform the care of patients with genetic and other diseases.