John Maraganore, PhD, former CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, has joined RNA therapy developer ProQR as a strategic advisor.
“It is a great honour to have John engaged with ProQR as a strategic advisor to the supervisory board to support us in defining the next steps for the Company, while we continue to analyse data from the ILLUMINATE trial of sepofarsen and identify next steps for the program, if any,” said Daniel A. de Boer, Founder and CEO of ProQR.
“As the founding CEO of Alnylam, he built and led one of the most successful biopharma companies, while pioneering RNA oligonucleotides as an important class of medicines that transformed the field and now help patients every day. He has been a mentor, friend, and supporter of ProQR from its earliest days and his perspective and experience will be extremely valuable as we evaluate the strategic direction of our pipeline of RNA therapies for genetic eye diseases and our proprietary RNA-editing platform technology.”
“I first met Daniel more than a decade ago through Henri Termeer and was always impressed with the company’s RNA science and its focus on patients,” said Dr Maraganore. “Although the company has experienced a recent setback, I see its fundamentals as solid – ProQR has deep RNA expertise, a pipeline beyond sepofarsen, an exciting RNA-editing platform, and a strong cash position to fund its strategy. I look forward to working with the supervisory board and team to create value for all stakeholders, as they work to bring RNA medicines to patients and advance next-generation RNA editing approaches.”