On his way out of Al­ny­lam, out­go­ing CEO John Maraganore, who had led the biotech through thick and thin for 19 years, said late last year he want­ed to ad­vise new biotech com­pa­nies in the grand­fa­ther phase of his ca­reer.

“It’s like a grand­fa­ther, right? You get the ben­e­fit of lov­ing your grand­chil­dren, but not hav­ing to take care of them all the time,” Maraganore said at the time. “I want to be a grand­dad.”

And with his newest ap­point­ments in biotech and ven­ture, it looks like his wish has been grant­ed — with a whirl­wind five an­nounce­ments and some big names.

One of those re­cent an­nounce­ments is the prover­bial ic­ing on the cake: Maraganore is join­ing RTW In­vest­ments as an ex­ec­u­tive part­ner.

RTW had in­vest­ed in Al­ny­lam be­fore the biotech had its first drug — On­pat­tro — ap­proved in 2018. And RTW, as a ma­jor play­er in the glob­al VC sphere, has in­vest­ed in quite a few oth­er biotechs — just shy of 40, ac­cord­ing to the in­vest­ment firm’s web­site.

“When the rest of the world was skep­ti­cal of Al­ny­lam, RTW be­lieved in our vi­sion for RNAi ther­a­peu­tics and ex­hib­it­ed the long-term, sci­ence-based in­vest­ment ap­proach the firm is known for,” said Maraganore in a pre­pared state­ment with RTW. “I’m join­ing RTW as ex­ec­u­tive part­ner be­cause I share that ap­proach and have seen first-hand the pow­er it can have to im­pact pa­tients’ lives.”

Two days be­fore his ap­point­ment was an­nounced at RTW, the n-Lorem Foun­da­tion — the brain­child of Io­n­is founder Stan­ley Crooke — an­nounced that Maraganore was join­ing the team as chair of its ad­vi­so­ry coun­cil. The an­ti­sense oligonu­cleotide med­i­cines foun­da­tion put Maraganore in charge of a team of n-Lorem ad­vi­sors to fo­cus on fundrais­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties.

The next day, bleed­ing dis­or­der out­fit Hemab Ther­a­peu­tics, led by Al­ny­lam alum Ben­ny Sorensen, an­nounced on Wednes­day that Maraganore was join­ing up as board chair — and Maraganore was all hap­py about it. Per his Twit­ter feed,

Very ex­cit­ed to join @hemab_tx as chair! Ma­jor op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­quer rare bleed­ing dis­or­ders with in­no­va­tion! Get­ting “band back to­geth­er” w/ @ben­ny_sorensen! https://t.co/DMW55Ra2nj

— John Maraganore (@JMaraganore) Jan­u­ary 5, 2022

Sorensen worked at Al­ny­lum for sev­er­al years, work­ing his way up to se­nior di­rec­tor of clin­i­cal re­search be­fore leav­ing in 2016.

Sev­er­al hours af­ter that an­nounce­ment, At­las Ven­ture fol­lowed suit — an­nounc­ing via Twit­ter that Maraganore has joined up with At­las as a ven­ture ad­vi­sor. This made his sec­ond po­si­tion in the VC realm and his fifth po­si­tion since he an­nounced his im­mi­nent de­par­ture from Al­ny­lam — of­fi­cial­ly re­tir­ing from the biotech gi­ant on De­cem­ber 31.

Ex­cit­ed to an­nounce that John Maraganore has joined At­las as a Ven­ture Ad­vi­sor, to help our en­tre­pre­neurs build the next gen­er­a­tion of great biotechs. Af­ter work­ing with @JMaraganore close­ly in the first decade of $AL­NY, At­las is thrilled to wel­come him “back” in­to the fam­i­ly!

— At­las Ven­ture (@at­lasven­ture) Jan­u­ary 5, 2022

And as of 6:45 am this morn­ing, Maraganore is part­ner­ing with cell ther­a­py out­fit SQZ Biotech­nolo­gies as a strate­gic ad­vi­sor.

So far, the past 48 hours and five newest posts put Maraganore in a head-spin­ning eight ap­point­ments. Be­fore the ap­point­ment del­uge, Maraganore an­nounced he was leav­ing Al­ny­lam in late Oc­to­ber and had part­nered with:

• Beam Ther­a­peu­tics, a gene ther­a­py up­start out of David Liu’s lab. CEO John Evans timed the an­nounce­ment of Maraganore join­ing the biotech’s board in ear­ly No­vem­ber with Beam’s an­nounce­ment of reg­u­la­to­ry clear­ance for their very first IND for BEAM-101, a po­ten­tial one-time treat­ment for sick­le cell, which marked a shift in Beam no longer be­ing just a pre­clin­i­cal biotech with po­ten­tial — but now a clin­i­cal-stage com­pa­ny with high ex­pec­ta­tions;
• Sali­o­Gen, a small gene cod­ing biotech that emerged out of a stretch in stealth with $20 mil­lion in March. Maraganore joined up as one of three heavy­weight ad­vi­sors to the com­pa­ny and CEO Ray Tabib­i­azar, along­side fi­nan­cial en­gi­neer An­drew Lo — the one who helped es­tab­lish Bridge­Bio and Roivant — and for­mer FDA com­mish Mark Mc­Clel­lan. At the time, Tabib­i­azar told End­points that to get John on board, “I thought it would be a mir­a­cle to get him,” he said. “To us, he was a celebri­ty.” And when John agreed, he told Ray: “I am here to share my scars with you.”
• ARCH Ven­ture as a new ven­ture part­ner, his first for­ay post-Al­ny­lam in­to VC — join­ing oth­er biotech big­wig names such as ex-FDA of­fi­cial Lu­ciana Bo­rio, Ax­el Bou­chon (for­mer head of Leaps by Bay­er), Jake Bauer (pre­vi­ous­ly at MyoKar­dia) and Sabah Oney (of Alec­tor fame). The Bob Nel­son-led VC has ac­cess to its largest-ever fund of $1.85 bil­lion, giv­ing more op­por­tu­ni­ties to in­vest in gene edit­ing, cell ther­a­py and men­tal health.

With some­one as well-known as Maraganore, it would not sur­prise peo­ple who keep close tabs on the in­dus­try if he took at least five board po­si­tions — with room for even more on the VC side of biotech. And now that he has eight new roles in biotech, it’s on­ly a mat­ter of time to see what else hap­pens — and who’s next in line for the “Maraganore touch” and en­su­ing pub­lic­i­ty.

Eli Lilly has found a new chief commercial officer from among the ranks at Bristol Myers Squibb, as it says farewell to its longtime head of human resources Stephen Fry.

Fry announced on Thursday his plans to retire after more than 35 years with Lilly. He’ll vacate his seat as SVP of human resources and diversity at the end of the year, and current Loxo CCO Eric Dozier is slated to take his place. As a result, BMS’ Winselow Tucker is joining the team as Loxo CCO at the end of the month.

The US House of Representatives today voted along party lines (all Dems voted for it), 220-207 to pass new, wide-ranging legislation that will allow Medicare drug price negotiations for the first time ever, and cap seniors’ drug expenses to $2,000 per year and seniors’ insulin costs at $35 per month.

Setting up a major victory for President Joe Biden, representatives returned from their summer recess to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, even as many noted the bill would only modestly reduce inflation.

Amgen is the latest pharma company to appear on the radar of Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR), who is investigating the way pharma companies are using subsidiaries in low- or zero-tax countries to lower their tax bills.

Like its peers Merck, AbbVie and Bristol Myers Squibb, Wyden notes how Amgen uses its Puerto Rico operations to consistently pay tax rates that are substantially lower than the U.S. corporate tax rate of 21%, with an effective tax rate of 10.7% in 2020 and 12.1% in 2021.