Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals logo
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: ALNY
Industry	Pharmaceutical
Founded	2002
Headquarters	300 Third St., Floor 3, Cambridge, MA, USA
Key people	John Maraganore, (CEO) Barry Greene, (President, COO) Akshay Vaishnaw, (CMO) David-Alexandre Gros (CBO)
Number of employees	> 500 (2017)
Website	Alnylam.com

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics for genetically defined diseases. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2016, Forbes included the company on its "100 Most Innovative Growth Companies" list.

In 2002, Alnylam was founded by scientists Phillip Sharp, Paul Schimmel, David Bartel, Thomas Tuschl, and Phillip Zamore, and by investors Christoph Westphal and John Kennedy Clarke; John Maraganore was the founding CEO. The company was named after Alnilam, a star in Orion’s belt. The spelling was modified to make it unique. In 2003, Alnylam merged with the German pharmaceutical company, Ribopharma AG. The newly formed company also received $24.6 million in funding from private-equity firms. On February 27, 2004, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals filed for an IPO. The company raised $26 million and began trading as ALNY on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

In 2005, the company partnered with Medtronic to develop drug-device combinations to treat neurodegenerative disorders. Alnylam partnered with Biogen Idec to discover and develop potential treatments of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in 2006. In July 2007, Alnylam entered into a nonexclusive alliance with the Swiss drug company, Hoffmann-La Roche, in which Alnylam received $331 million upfront in exchange for access to its technology platform. In September 2007, Alnylam partnered with Isis Pharmaceuticals to found the company Regulus Therapeutics, a company focused on discovery, development, and commercialization of microRNA therapeutics.