Diversity & Inclusion Special
“Diversity and inclusion is a key topic in our profession and workplace” As the son of a mixed Dutch-Italian couple, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Country Manager Marco Fossatelli knows just how important it is to be accepted for who you are, both in daily life and in the workplace. Having worked as a scientist, chemist and researcher at various pharmaceutical companies, Marco helped set up Alnylam Netherlands four and a half years ago. The global biopharmaceutical company, which now employs fifty people of twenty different nationalities at its premises in Zuidas, is specialized in developing medications that treat rare diseases by employing a self-developed revolutionary technology, able to stop the production of harmful proteins. We met with Marco at Alnylam’s offices in the Cross Towers to talk about the organization’s history and its take on diversity, equity and inclusion. Impact on patients and families
to say, it was an exciting time! I’m now
Marco is a scientific researcher by training
country manager for the Netherlands,
whose path eventually led him into the
with responsibility for local operations
pharmaceutical world: “I started out doing
and our large international office here in
lab work looking for specific types of
Amsterdam. Our mission is to help people
medicines. Basically, that involved lots of
who are ill and haven’t been able to get
experimenting with substances. But I was
good treatment for a long time, so that’s
less interested in research, and more in
very rewarding work. Developing the right
the industry. I switched to the commercial
medications has a massive impact on
side fairly early in my career, and in the
patients and their families.”
last 15 years to biotech, centring on
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modern technologies. I was one of the first
Sense of belonging: good for
employees to join Alnylam Nederland here
staff, good for the company
in Zuidas. My job was to set up our Benelux
From the outset, diversity and inclusion
division and launch our first medication to
have been front and centre at Alnylam
treat a rare hereditary condition. Needless
Amsterdam, Marco emphasizes. “Our
