Date: 2017-03-28
Type of information: Nomination
Compound:
Company: Akcea Therapeutics (USA - MA), a subsidiary of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (USA - CA)
Therapeutic area: Cardiovascular diseases - Metabolic diseases - Rare diseases
Type agreement: nomination
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details:
- • On March 28, 2017, Akcea Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, announced three additions to the company's board of directors:
- – Christopher Gabrieli, partner emeritus of Bessemer Venture Partners, a venture capital fund. Mr. Gabrieli will serve as chairman of the board of Akcea board of directors. Previously, as a partner at Bessemer, he led their life sciences practice and made a founding investment in Ionis Pharmaceuticals.
- – Elaine Hochberg, former chief commercial officer of Forest Laboratories. She is a managing partner of Elaran, a business strategy and management firm. She has held a number of commercial leadership positions at both Forest Laboratories and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories. At Forest, she served as chief commercial officer, executive vice president, international, strategic planning and government affairs and senior vice president-marketing.
- – Sandford D. Smith, founder and chairman of Global Biolink Partners. He has, for the past 20 years, focused on drugs and therapies for rare genetic diseases. He has served as founder and chairman of Global Biolink Partners, Aegerion's interim chief executive officer, and following Aegerion's merger with Novelion, he serves as Novelion's vice chair. Mr. Smith held various positions at Sanofi-Genzyme (formerly Genzyme Corporation), most recently leading the integration of Genzyme's international business into Sanofi's global organization and, prior to that, he served as executive vice president of Genzyme Corporation, and president of Genzyme International.
- With the additions of Mr. Gabrieli, Ms. Hochberg, and Mr. Smith as independent directors, the board of directors for Akcea will initially consist of six members, including Dr. Stanley Crooke, chairman and chief executive officer of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, B. Lynne Parshall, chief operating officer of Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Paula Soteropoulos, president and chief executive officer of Akcea Therapeutics.
Financial terms:
Latest news:
Is general: Yes
