Courtesy of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
For the first time since we started our surveys in 2003, sixth-ranked Alnylam
Pharmaceuticals placed among the top ten small companies. The Cambridge, Mass.-based
company develops medicines that rely on RNA interference to increase or decrease
gene activity. Research in RNA interference is booming, with over 25 companies
entering the field in the last ten years.
Alnylam's increased visibility this year may be due, in part, to its stable
financial position. Since its founding in 2002, Alnylam has pursued an aggressive
strategy of partnering with pharma giants like Merck, Roche, and Novartis to license
potential therapies, enabling it to grow from 15 employees to a staff of about 170,
140 of whom are scientists. Alnylam boasts the eighth best ratio of assets to debt
in the biotech industry and is sitting on vast cash reserves of $512 million, says
CEO John Maraganore. The cushion of money makes "our scientists feel they've got an
environment where they can continue to grow as opposed to an environment where
they're focusing on survival," he says.
The company's focus on a hot research topic tends to draw the scientific
overachievers, associate director of research Akin Akinc says. Alnylam researchers
have published over 23 papers in the past 5 years, many in high-impact journals like
Nature, Cell, and PNAS. Alnylam also has leaders in the field—like Bob
Langer of MIT—on its scientific advisory board. The push to publish and
share results with the broader scientific community is a big draw, since "that's
what you're measured upon ultimately as a scientist," Akinc says.
Work-life balance isn't a hallmark of the company. "There's clearly more work
to go around than people to do it," Akinc says. Yet there's also "tremendous
opportunity" to grow and gain responsibility. Akinc knows this first-hand; he
started as a newly minted PhD in 2002 and worked his way from "scientist to senior
scientist, principal scientist, then most recently to associate director of
research," he says.
