Alnylam Announces Launch of “Alnylam Challengers,” a Signature Community Impact Program to Improve Health Access to Underserved Communities

By: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. via Business Wire

October 13, 2021 at 07:30 AM EDT

− Alnylam will provide a $1 Million Grant to Acumen America and will serve as an Anchor Partner of their Health Equity Portfolio –

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), the leading RNAi therapeutics company, today announced the launch of Alnylam Challengers, a signature community impact program that will support bold and diverse organizations in their pursuit of developing new and sustainable solutions to address challenges in health equity. Through this program, Alnylam will collaborate with social entrepreneurs, employees, and business partners to create innovative health solutions to tackle obstacles to accessing health care such as poverty, racial discrimination, and other social determinants of health.

Alnylam’s first U.S. partnership is with Acumen America, the U.S. division of a global nonprofit that raises philanthropic dollars and invests them in social impact-driven companies, leaders and ideas that take on world poverty. Alnylam is contributing $1 million to support Acumen America in its efforts to impact 75 million people in the U.S. by 2024.

“At Alnylam, corporate responsibility is a commitment to tackling unprecedented and complex challenges, taking courageous action, and using our business as a force for good. Alnylam Challengers is a multi-dimensional commitment for Alnylam,” said Dr. Pushkal Garg, Chief Medical Officer. “We are dedicated to the partnership aspect of this program – our employees, both as experts in their fields and as volunteers, are working with organizations, through our partnership with Acumen America, to enable their work, fuel growth and drive real change for the communities they serve.”

The three focus areas of Alnylam Challengers include:

Social Investment Portfolio: A strategic social investment model to tackle health inequities by partnering with a diverse and boldly innovative set of social entrepreneurs, enterprises, and non-profit organizations.
Advisory Corps: A skills-based volunteerism initiative where Alnylam employee teams serve as subject-matter expert (SME) advisors to address health equity issues through innovative business models.
Convenings: A series of cross-sector forums that embed Alnylam into industry, national, and international dialogue around pressing issues of health equity and rally others to think boldly and partner on important health issues.

“We are thrilled to be the first Alnylam Challengers partner to further our goal of empowering social entrepreneurs to address health equity,” said Catherine Casey Nanda, Acumen America Director. “Our approach centers on the idea of patient capital investing, which bridges the gap between the efficiency and scale of market-based approaches and the social impact of philanthropy.”

Alnylam’s Corporate Responsibility actions are organized across five interconnected, stakeholder-related focus areas: patients, science, employees, communities, and planet. Through Challengers, Alnylam is advancing its commitment to improve the health of humanity by investing in social organizations that are actively tackling the most pressing community and health equity challenges.

About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Alnylam (Nasdaq: ALNY) is leading the translation of RNA interference (RNAi) into a whole new class of innovative medicines with the potential to transform the lives of people afflicted with rare genetic, cardio-metabolic, hepatic infectious, and central nervous system (CNS)/ocular diseases. Based on Nobel Prize-winning science, RNAi therapeutics represent a powerful, clinically validated approach for the treatment of a wide range of severe and debilitating diseases. Founded in 2002, Alnylam is delivering on a bold vision to turn scientific possibility into reality, with a robust RNAi therapeutics platform. Alnylam’s commercial RNAi therapeutic products are ONPATTRO^® (patisiran), GIVLAARI^® (givosiran), and OXLUMO^® (lumasiran), as well as Leqvio^® (inclisiran), which is being developed and commercialized by Alnylam’s partner Novartis. Alnylam has a deep pipeline of investigational medicines, including six product candidates that are in late-stage development. Alnylam is executing on its “Alnylam P⁵x25” strategy to deliver transformative medicines in both rare and common diseases benefiting patients around the world through sustainable innovation and exceptional financial performance, resulting in a leading biotech profile. Alnylam is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. For more information about our people, science and pipeline, please visit www.alnylam.com and engage with us on Twitter at @Alnylam, on LinkedIn, or on Instagram.