Alnylam Sr. VP and CBO Exits For Personal Reasons

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:ALNY), the leading RNAi therapeutics company, today announced that David-Alexandre “DA” Gros, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer, plans to leave the company for personal reasons. His resignation will be effective January 6, 2017, and the company will initiate a search for his replacement. Additionally, the Company announced the promotion of Pushkal Garg, M.D., Senior Vice President, Clinical Development, to the role of Chief Medical Officer, reporting to Akshay Vaishnaw, Executive Vice President of R&D.

“My decision to leave is based on my personal interest to return to the West Coast in a broader operating role.”

“Alnylam is a remarkably innovative and exciting company focused on bringing a whole new class of medicines to patients in need. I’m grateful to have contributed during this pivotal period, and I look forward to watching Alnylam’s continued success and growth into a top-tier biopharmaceutical company,” said Dr. Gros. “My decision to leave is based on my personal interest to return to the West Coast in a broader operating role.”

“DA made important contributions to Alnylam and was a valued member of our senior leadership team,” said John Maraganore, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer at Alnylam. “We wish him and his family well in their return to the West Coast.”

In his promotion to Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Garg will be responsible for clinical development at Alnylam, leading clinical research, clinical operations, biometrics, and medical writing functions. He will also join the company’s Management Board.

Dr. Garg joined Alnylam in late 2014 with over 15 years of experience in early and late-stage clinical drug development, including at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. During his tenure at BMS, he was responsible for the development and successful global approvals of several medicines in the Immunoscience therapeutic area. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at UCSF, was a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston prior to joining industry.

“Since joining Alnylam in 2014, Pushkal has played an instrumental role in advancing our investigational RNAi therapeutics through the clinic and has been a key member of our development team,” said Akshay Vaishnaw, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice President of R&D at Alnylam. “The promotion of Pushkal to Chief Medical Officer is a recognition of his significant contributions to our development activities and his broader leadership at Alnylam and across the industry.”

“I remain as excited about the opportunity to bring this new class of therapeutics to patients now as I was the day that I joined Alnylam, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute in this new role,” said Dr. Garg. “I look forward to the continued collaboration with Akshay and the broader Alnylam development team as we make the important transition toward a commercial stage company.”

About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Alnylam is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on RNA interference, or RNAi. The company is leading the translation of RNAi as a new class of innovative medicines. Alnylam’s pipeline of investigational RNAi therapeutics is focused in 3 Strategic Therapeutic Areas (STArs): Genetic Medicines, with a broad pipeline of RNAi therapeutics for the treatment of rare diseases; Cardio-Metabolic Disease, with a pipeline of RNAi therapeutics toward genetically validated, liver-expressed disease targets for unmet needs in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases; and Hepatic Infectious Disease, with a pipeline of RNAi therapeutics that address the major global health challenges of hepatic infectious diseases. In early 2015, Alnylam launched its “Alnylam 2020" guidance for the advancement and commercialization of RNAi therapeutics as a whole new class of innovative medicines. Specifically, by the end of 2020, Alnylam expects to achieve a company profile with 3 marketed products, 10 RNAi therapeutic clinical programs – including 4 in late stages of development – across its 3 STArs. The company’s demonstrated commitment to RNAi therapeutics has enabled it to form major alliances with leading companies including Ionis, Novartis, Roche, Takeda, Merck, Monsanto, The Medicines Company, and Sanofi Genzyme. In addition, Alnylam holds an equity position in Regulus Therapeutics Inc., a company focused on discovery, development, and commercialization of microRNA therapeutics. Alnylam scientists and collaborators have published their research on RNAi therapeutics in over 200 peer-reviewed papers, including many in the world’s top scientific journals such as Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet. Founded in 2002, Alnylam maintains headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information about Alnylam’s pipeline of investigational RNAi therapeutics, please visit www.alnylam.com.

Alnylam Forward Looking Statements

Various statements in this release concerning Alnylam’s future expectations, plans and prospects, its expectations regarding its STAr pipeline growth strategy, its “Alnylam 2020" guidance for the advancement and commercialization of RNAi therapeutics, and its plans regarding the 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, 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 our product candidates, obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property, Alnylam’s ability to enforce its intellectual property rights against third parties and defend its patent portfolio against challenges from third parties, obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval, pricing and reimbursement for products, progress in establishing a commercial and ex-United States infrastructure, 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, 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 for development, manufacture and distribution of products, 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 Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q 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.