Alnylam Appoints Dr. Edward Scolnick to Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today the appointment of Edward Scolnick, M.D., to its Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Scolnick is the director of the Psychiatry Initiative at the Broad Institute. From 1982 to 2003, Dr. Scolnick served in a number of key leadership roles at Merck Research Laboratories, most recently as president. Prior to joining Merck, he worked at the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart Institute.
“We are extremely delighted and honored that Ed has agreed to join the Alnylam board of directors and our scientific advisory board,” said John Maraganore, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Alnylam. “As a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Scolnick’s demonstration of scientific excellence and commitment to breakthrough medicines are legendary accomplishments. We believe that his broad and deep expertise in the research and development of innovative medicines will bring a unique dimension to our boards as we build a top-tier biopharmaceutical company founded on RNAi.”
“RNAi creates an entirely new product platform for the discovery and development of high impact medicines,” said Dr. Scolnick. “Alnylam’s progress to date, both in business and scientific excellence, shows promise and I am looking forward to contributing to ongoing efforts as an active member of their boards.”
A graduate of Harvard College, Dr. Scolnick earned an A.B. and then an M.D. from Harvard University Medical School. Dr. Scolnick was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1984 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993. He became a member of the Institute of Medicine in 1996. Dr. Scolnick currently serves on the board of directors for Millipore Corporation and served as a member of the Food and Drug Administration Science Board from 2000 to 2002.
About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
Alnylam is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on RNA interference, or RNAi. The company is applying its therapeutic expertise in RNAi to address significant medical needs, many of which cannot effectively be addressed with small molecules or antibodies, the current major classes of drugs. Alnylam is leading the translation of RNAi as a new class of innovative medicines with peer-reviewed research efforts published in the world’s top scientific journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, and Cell. The company is leveraging these capabilities to build a broad pipeline of RNAi therapeutics; its most advanced program is in Phase II human clinical trials for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. In addition, the company is developing RNAi therapeutics for the treatment of a wide range of disease areas, including hypercholesterolemia, liver cancers, and Huntington’s disease. The company’s leadership position in fundamental patents, technology, and know-how relating to RNAi has enabled it to form major alliances with leading companies including Medtronic, Novartis, Biogen Idec, and Roche. To reflect its outlook for key scientific, clinical, and business initiatives, Alnylam has established “RNAi 2010″ which includes the company’s plan to significantly expand the scope of delivery solutions for RNAi therapeutics, have four or more programs in clinical development, and to form four or more new major business collaborations, all by the end of 2010. Alnylam is a joint owner of Regulus Therapeutics LLC, a joint venture focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of microRNA therapeutics. Founded in 2002, Alnylam maintains headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.alnylam.com.
Alnylam Forward-Looking Statements
Various statements in this release concerning Alnylam’s future expectations, plans and prospects, constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including risks related to: Alnylam’s approach to discover and develop novel drugs, which is unproven and may never lead to marketable products; obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property utilized by Alnylam’s products; Alnylam’s ability to enforce its patents against infringers and to defend its patent portfolio against challenges from third parties; Alnylam’s ability to obtain additional funding to support its business activities; Alnylam’s dependence on third parties for development, manufacture, marketing, sales and distribution of products; the successful development of Alnylam’s product candidates, all of which are in early stages of development; obtaining regulatory approval for products; competition from others using technology similar to Alnylam’s and others developing products for similar uses; Alnylam’s dependence on collaborators; and Alnylam’s short operating history; as well as those risks more fully discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of its most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 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 does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.