Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKCA), a majority-owned affiliate of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that Michael D. Price has joined the company as executive vice president and chief financial officer. In this role, Mr. Price will oversee financial operations at the company including managing financial strategies and activities related to clinical and regulatory functions, commercial sales, marketing, manufacturing and supply chain.
"With his extensive experience in finance, and the rare disease space specifically, Michael will be an important strategic advisor, providing our team with valuable guidance as it relates to our financial operations to align with our company mission and business strategy," said Damien McDevitt, Ph.D., chief executive officer at Akcea. "We are pleased to have him join our executive leadership team at this pivotal time as we build on our momentum and plan for several important developments this year and in the years ahead."
Mr. Price has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Before joining Akcea, Mr. Price served as executive vice president and chief financial officer and was elected to the company's board of directors of Novelion Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on research, development and marketing of biologics for the treatment of ultra-rare diseases, including homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and generalized and partial lipodystrophy. Before that, Mr. Price served as vice president and chief financial officer at Noven Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded company prior to its acquisition by Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical Co., Inc., focused on women's health and central nervous system disorders, from 2007 to 2016. Prior to Noven, he was at Bentley Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 1992 to 2006, serving as vice president, chief financial officer, treasurer and secretary. He also was a member of Bentley's board of directors for nine years. Mr. Price, a CPA, holds a BS in accounting from Auburn University and an MBA from Florida State University.
"As someone who understands very well the challenges and significant disease burden associated with many rare and ultra-rare diseases, I am honored to join the Akcea team and look forward to supporting their ongoing efforts to fulfill unmet medical needs for patients and families around the world," said Mr. Price.
ABOUT AKCEA THERAPEUTICS, INC.
Akcea Therapeutics, Inc., a majority-owned affiliate of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IONS), is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing medicines to treat patients with serious and rare diseases. Akcea is commercializing TEGSEDI® (inotersen) and WAYLIVRA® (volanesorsen), as well as advancing a mature pipeline of novel medicines, including AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx, vupanorsen (AKCEA-ANGPTL3-LRx), AKCEA-APOCIII-LRx, and AKCEA-TTR-LRx, with the potential to treat multiple diseases. All six medicines were discovered by Ionis, a leader in antisense therapeutics, and are based on Ionis' proprietary antisense technology. TEGSEDI is approved in the U.S., E.U., Canada and Brazil. WAYLIVRA is approved in the E.U. and is currently in Phase 3 clinical development for the treatment of people with familial partial lipodystrophy, or FPL. Akcea is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and is building the infrastructure to commercialize its medicines globally. Additional information about Akcea is available at www.akceatx.com and you can follow the Company on Twitter at @akceatx.
