Philanthropy

Most companies that bet on RNA interference in the early 2000s eventually walked away. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals stayed.The Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company was founded in 2002 on a then-unproven premise: that a process called RNA interference, or RNAi, could be developed into medicines that “silence” disease-causing genes. The underlying science was discovered just a few years earlier and went on to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2006. The path from discovery to approved medicine took two decades. In 2018, Alnylam's first commercial medicine became the world's first FDA-approved RNAi therapeutic. The company now has six approved medicines, a growing global pipeline, and late last year they reached profitability for the first time.The growth of the company has allowed Alynlam to increase its corporate responsibility commitments and upon learning of CCF’s work in the community, Alnylam joined CCF this year as our lead sponsor with a $50,000 gift.“We recognize that our achievements bring increased expectations and responsibility,” says Arun Skaria, Alnylam’s head of diversity, equity & inclusion and corporate responsibility. “It allows us to invest resources back into the community.” He calls it a leadership commitment to do more.He calls it a leadership commitment to do more.Most of

Community Fund co-investors Edward Loveall and Elizabeth Kowalski.