Alnylam Appoints Akshay Vaishnaw as Chief Medical Officer

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALNY, a leading RNAi therapeutics company, today announced that it has promoted Akshay K. Vaishnaw, M.D., Ph.D., to the new position of Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Vaishnaw previously held the title of Senior Vice President, Clinical Research. “We are delighted to promote Akshay to this new role. He has led the advancement of Alnylam's pipeline and has aptly earned this promotion and new recognition,” said John Maraganore, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Alnylam. “Alnylam is leading the development of RNAi therapeutics as innovative medicines. With three programs in human clinical trials currently and a total of five expected by year's end, Akshay's leadership has been instrumental in the transformation of our business from a platform company to a product company.” “Through the tremendous efforts of our scientists, partners, and collaborators, the field of RNAi therapeutics has seen important progress over the last year or so, including the demonstration of safety and tolerability in an expanding human experience, proof of RNAi mechanism in man, and encouraging evidence of clinical activity,” said Dr. Vaishnaw. “I am excited by this progress and very much look forward to the coming months where we expect to have additional clinical data from our RNAi therapeutics pipeline, including ALN-TTR for the treatment of transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis, ALN-PCS for the treatment of severe hypercholesterolemia, and ALN-RSV for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus. I am also fortunate to work with a broader team of colleagues at Alnylam who share a likeminded commitment and passion to advance RNAi therapeutics as a new class of innovative medicines.”