In the fall of 2016, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals was looking to expand. The Cambridge, Massachusetts–based company had therapies based on RNA interference (RNAi) technology in late-stage clinical testing for a handful of rare diseases, and wanted to establish a presence in Europe to better serve patients there. By the end of the following year, the company had opened offices in Maidenhead, UK; Zug, Switzerland; and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to serve as its three European hubs.
Scouting for new locations in Europe, the company found Amsterdam particularly appealing, says Marco Fossatelli, Alnylam’s country manager in the Netherlands. Alnylam already had long-standing partnerships with three large academic medical centers in the Netherlands that had hosted some of the company’s Phase 3 trials. And Amsterdam checked all the right boxes: it has a highly skilled workforce and is easily accessible and navigable by public transportation. It also had a blossoming life sciences and healt