CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), the leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced the appointment of Dr. Olivier Brandicourt to its Board of Directors effective March 2, 2020. Dr. Brandicourt served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Sanofi from 2015 to 2019. Prior to that he was CEO and chair of Bayer HealthCare from 2013 to 2015, and spent 13 years at Pfizer, including as a member of its Executive Leadership Team and President and General Manager of the Emerging Markets and Established Products business units, amongst other roles.
In addition, Alnylam announces today the retirement of Dr. Paul Schimmel from the Board effective upon the conclusion of his current term at the Annual Meeting of Alnylam stockholders in 2020. Dr. Schimmel, Hahn Professor of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research and MacArthur Professor Emeritus at MIT, is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, American Philosophical Society, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Schimmel co-founded Alnylam where he served on the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board since the Company’s founding in 2002. Following his retirement from the Board of Directors, Dr. Schimmel will continue to serve on the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board.
“We are honored to welcome Olivier to our Board of Directors at this exciting point in Alnylam’s history. Olivier’s past leadership in three leading pharmaceutical companies and extensive global commercial experience will provide invaluable perspective to our Board as Alnylam continues to launch ONPATTRO, introduces GIVLAARI around the world, and advances additional late-stage development programs on the path to financial self-sustainability,” said John Maraganore, Ph.D. Chief Executive Officer of Alnylam. “We very much look forward to the experience Olivier will bring as we continue to advance innovative RNAi therapeutics intended to transform the lives of patients with serious, and often highly debilitating, conditions.”
“I’m very pleased to become a director of Alnylam whose science and innovation I have long admired. Alnylam is at an exciting stage as a multi-product, global commercial company that is well positioned to deliver high impact for patients and significant growth for shareholders,” said Dr. Olivier Brandicourt. “I look forward to working with the Board and management in building Alnylam for the future.”
A physician by training, Dr. Brandicourt holds an Advanced Degree in Cellular and Immunological Pathophysiology from Paris Descartes University. He worked at the Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris with a focus on malaria research in West and Central Africa. Dr. Brandicourt formerly served as Chair of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Board, is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London, and is a Board member of the National Committee on United States-China Relations in New York. Since December 2019 Dr. Brandicourt has also served as a Senior Advisor at Blackstone.
“On behalf of the Board and the entire Alnylam team, I want to extend our profound thanks to Paul Schimmel for his nearly eighteen years of service with Alnylam, and the enormous contributions he has made to our continuing success,” said Dr. Maraganore. “In 2002, Paul and Alnylam’s other founders had the bold vision that the scientific breakthrough of RNAi could lead to the development of a whole new class of medicines. With the approvals of ONPATTRO and GIVLAARI, and the recently announced positive readouts from pivotal studies of inclisiran and lumasiran, Paul has contributed to a rare event in science and medicine to see that vision realized.”
“I am proud to have played a part in building this distinctive company from birth. The Alnylam journey has been nothing short of remarkable, from conquering the many scientific and business challenges to now bringing RNAi therapeutics to patients around the world,” said Paul Schimmel. “I also want to extend a warm welcome to Dr. Brandicourt whose experience and voice will be very beneficial as Alnylam continues its global commercialization efforts.”
About Alnylam
Alnylam (Nasdaq: ALNY) is leading the translation of RNA interference (RNAi) into a whole new class of innovative medicines with the potential to transform the lives of people afflicted with rare genetic, cardio-metabolic, hepatic infectious, and central nervous system (CNS)/ocular diseases. Based on Nobel Prize-winning science, RNAi therapeutics represent a powerful, clinically validated approach for the treatment of a wide range of severe and debilitating diseases. Founded in 2002, Alnylam is delivering on a bold vision to turn scientific possibility into reality, with a robust RNAi therapeutics platform. Alnylam’s commercial RNAi therapeutic products are ONPATTRO® (patisiran), approved in the U.S., EU, Canada, Japan, and Switzerland, and Brazil, and GIVLAARI® (givosiran), approved in the U.S. Alnylam has a deep pipeline of investigational medicines, including five product candidates that are in late-stage development. Alnylam is executing on its "Alnylam 2020" strategy of building a multi-product, commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company with a sustainable pipeline of RNAi-based medicines to address the needs of patients who have limited or inadequate treatment options. Alnylam is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. For more information about our people, science and pipeline, please visit www.alnylam.com and engage with us on Twitter at @Alnylam or on LinkedIn.
Alnylam Forward Looking Statements
Various statements in this release concerning Alnylam's future expectations, plans and prospects, including, without limitation, Alnylam's views and plans with respect to the potential for RNAi therapeutics, including the continued launch of ONPATTRO, the introduction of GIVLAARI globally and the advancement of additional late-stage development programs on its path to financial self-sustainability, and expectations regarding the continued execution on its “Alnylam 2020” guidance for the advancement and commercialization of RNAi therapeutics, constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results and future plans may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, without limitation: Alnylam's ability to discover and develop novel drug candidates and delivery approaches and successfully demonstrate the efficacy and safety of its product candidates; the pre-clinical and clinical results for its product candidates, which may not be replicated or continue to occur in other subjects or in additional studies or otherwise support further development of product candidates for a specified indication or at all; actions or advice of regulatory agencies, which may affect the design, initiation, timing, continuation and/or progress of clinical trials or result in the need for additional pre-clinical and/or clinical testing; delays, interruptions or failures in the manufacture and supply of its product candidates or its marketed products; obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property; intellectual property matters including potential patent litigation relating to its platform, products or product candidates; obtaining regulatory approval for its product candidates, including lumasiran, and maintaining regulatory approval and obtaining pricing and reimbursement for its products, including ONPATTRO and GIVLAARI; progress in continuing to establish a commercial and ex-United States infrastructure; successfully launching, marketing and selling its approved products globally, including ONPATTRO and GIVLAARI, and achieve net product revenues for ONPATTRO within our expected range during 2020; Alnylam’s ability to successfully expand the indication for ONPATTRO in the future; competition from others using technology similar to Alnylam's and others developing products for similar uses; Alnylam's ability to manage its growth and operating expenses within the ranges of our expected guidance and achieve a self-sustainable financial profile in the future, obtain additional funding to support its business activities, and establish and maintain strategic business alliances and new business initiatives; Alnylam's dependence on third parties, including Regeneron, for development, manufacture and distribution of certain products, including eye and CNS products, and Ironwood, for assistance with the education about and promotion of GIVLAARI; the outcome of litigation; the risk of government investigations; and unexpected expenditures, as well as those risks more fully discussed in the "Risk Factors" filed with Alnylam's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and in other filings that Alnylam makes with the SEC. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent Alnylam's views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Alnylam explicitly disclaims any obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update any forward-looking statements.
