Health & Fitness
Health and Fitness
Health and Fitness
Thu, September 23, 2010
Wed, September 22, 2010
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today the election of Steven M. Paul, M.D., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Paul is the former President of the Lilly Research Laboratories of Eli Lilly and Company. Alnylam also announced the retirement of James L. Vincent, the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Biogen Idec, Inc.
"We are very excited to have Steve join the Alnylam Board. Steve is widely recognized as a leader across many dimensions of medical research and drug development, and he will bring this critical expertise to our Board as we advance our innovative medicines to patients"
aWe are very excited to have Steve join the Alnylam Board. Steve is widely recognized as a leader across many dimensions of medical research and drug development, and he will bring this critical expertise to our Board as we advance our innovative medicines to patients,a said John Maraganore, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Alnylam. aWe are very grateful to Jim for his insightful service as an Alnylam Director. We wish him all the best in his retirement.a
aThe field of RNAi therapeutics represents an opportunity to create an entirely new class of high impact medicines, with broad applications for the treatment of human disease,a said Dr. Paul. aI am very excited to be a part of the important work that Alnylam is doing and look forward to working with the outstanding team in place and contributing to this effort.a
In his distinguished 17-year tenure at Eli Lilly, Dr. Paul held several key leadership roles, including Vice President of Neuroscience (CNS) Research, Group Vice President of Discovery Research (all therapeutic areas), and President of the Lilly Research Laboratories, where he was responsible for the companya™s overall research and development efforts resulting in a pipeline of approximately 70 new molecular entities. Prior to Lilly, Dr. Paul served as Scientific Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. He has also served as Medical Director in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service.
Dr. Paul received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Psychology from Tulane University in 1972, and his Master of Science and Doctor of Medicine degrees from the Tulane University School of Medicine in 1975. Following a residency in Psychiatry at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, he was awarded a research fellowship in the Pharmacology Research Associate Training Program of the National Institute of General Medical Science to work with Nobel Laureate Dr. Julius Axelrod. Dr. Paul has been the recipient of many awards and honors and has served on numerous committees and advisory boards. He has also authored or co-authored over 500 papers and book chapters. In 1997 he was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, and in 2010 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Allen Institute for Brain Sciences and the Institute on Aging at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Paul also serves on the Board of Directors of the Sigma-Aldrich Corporation and the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health.
About RNA Interference (RNAi)
RNAi (RNA interference) is a revolution in biology, representing a breakthrough in understanding how genes are turned on and off in cells, and a completely new approach to drug discovery and development. Its discovery has been heralded as aa major scientific breakthrough that happens once every decade or so,a and represents one of the most promising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and drug discovery today which was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. RNAi is a natural process of gene silencing that occurs in organisms ranging from plants to mammals. By harnessing the natural biological process of RNAi occurring in our cells, the creation of a major new class of medicines, known as RNAi therapeutics, is on the horizon. Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), the molecules that mediate RNAi and comprise Alnylama™s RNAi therapeutic platform, target the cause of diseases by potently silencing specific mRNAs, thereby preventing disease-causing proteins from being made. RNAi therapeutics have the potential to treat disease and help patients in a fundamentally new way.
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 worlda™s top scientific journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, and Cell. The company is leveraging these capabilities to build a broad pipeline of RNAi therapeutics for the treatment of a wide range of disease areas, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), liver cancers, TTR-mediated amyloidosis (ATTR), hypercholesterolemia, and Huntingtona™s disease. In addition, Alnylam formed Alnylam Biotherapeutics, a division of the company focused on the development of RNAi technologies for application in manufacturing processes for biotherapeutic products, including recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies. The companya™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, Roche, Takeda, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, and Cubist. Alnylam and Isis are joint owners of Regulus Therapeutics Inc., a company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of microRNA therapeutics. Founded in 2002, Alnylam maintains headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit [ www.alnylam.com ].
Alnylam Forward-Looking Statement
Various statements in this release concerning Alnylama™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 Alnylama™s ability to discover and develop novel drug candidates, as well as those risks more fully discussed in the aRisk Factorsa 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 Alnylama™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.
