When former Sanofi CEO Olivier Brandicourt handed the reins to Paul Hudson in June, it marked a turning point after a tumultuous period at the French drugmaker. Now eight months out of a job, Brandicourt is now taking a boardroom seat at a much younger drugmaker with the opportunity for big growth in the coming years.
Alnylam, the maker of ultra-pricey RNAi therapies Onpattro and Givlaari, named Brandicourt to its board of directors in a move that will add "invaluable perspective" to the drugmaker's leadership team, the company said in a release.
Brandicourt, Sanofi head from 2015 to 2019 and a former CEO at Bayer HealthCare, left Sanofi in June as part of a planned transition of leadership to Hudson. Prior to Bayer, Brandicourt spent 13 years at Pfizer, including a stint as president and general manager of the emerging markets and established products units.
With Brandicourt coming on board, Alnylam will say goodbye to director Paul Schimmel, a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has served on Alnylam's board since its founding in 2002, the company said. Following his retirement after Alnylam's 2020 shareholder meeting, Schimmel will remain on the company's scientific advisory board.
