Akin Akinc

Akin Akinc joined Aera as CEO in 2022 after spending nearly two decades at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in various R&D and commercial roles.

Prior to joining Aera, Dr. Akinc was most recently Senior Vice President and Head of Oncology at Alnylam. Prior to that role, he was the General Manager of the GIVLAARI® program, which he led from Phase 3 to approval and launch. GIVLAARI® was first approved by the U.S. FDA for the treatment of acute hepatic porphyria in adults in 2019 and has received marketing authorizations in the EU, Japan and multiple other territories. Prior to that, Dr. Akinc was General Manager of the fitusiran program, currently in development for the treatment of hemophilia A and B, with or without inhibitors. He led the fitusiran program from discovery to Phase 3 clinical stage and until transfer of global rights to partner Sanofi. Prior to his therapeutic program leadership roles, Dr. Akinc served in roles of increasing responsibility and leadership in the research organization at Alnylam. Dr. Akinc co-led interdisciplinary efforts focused on delivery of RNAi therapeutics and the development of Alnylam’s RNAi platform technology, notably on lipid nanoparticles, which resulted in ONPATTRO®, the world’s first approved RNAi therapeutic.

Dr. Akinc holds a BSE in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.