Akcea Therapeutics Announces New Board of Directors Appointments

Akcea Therapeutics, a majority-owned affiliate of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, announced the appointments of Lynne Parshall, J.D., as chair of the Akcea Board of Directors and Barbara Yanni as a new member of the board. Both positions are effective immediately. Parshall has served as a member of Akcea’s Board of Directors since January 2015. She replaces Christopher Gabrieli, who will continue to serve as a board member.

"On behalf of the Akcea Board and the entire Akcea team, we thank Chris for his leadership and dedicated service to Akcea during a period of many significant advancements including launching TEGSEDI® (inotersen) and WAYLIVRA® (volanesorsen). Lynne has been an active board member who is very familiar with our business operations and goals and is the ideal candidate to guide our work as we plan for success in the years ahead," said Damien McDevitt, Ph.D., interim chief executive officer at Akcea.

Parshall is also currently a director and senior strategic advisor to Ionis Pharmaceuticals. She previously served as chief operating officer at Ionis from 1991-2018 where she was responsible for overseeing business operations in diverse areas including finance, legal, intellectual property, manufacturing, information technology, regulatory and alliance management, health and safety, corporate communications and business and corporate development. In addition, she participated in both development and research management committees. Before joining Ionis, Parshall was a partner at Cooley LLP, where she represented several healthcare companies in a general practice specializing in corporate partnering and other technology-based transactions. She received her J.D. from Stanford Law School and her B.A. from Harvard College, and is a member of the American, California and San Diego bar associations. She also serves on the board of Cytokinetics and is a member of the Licensing Executives Society.

"As a member of the Akcea Board since its founding, I have an in-depth understanding of the Company’s business model and strong commercial and development capabilities. I also have a deep understanding of our products and the needs of the patient and clinician communities we serve. I am honored to accept this new role as chair of the Board and look forward to continuing to support the outstanding Akcea team as we plan for many new opportunities moving forward," said Parshall.

Yanni was vice president and chief licensing officer at Merck & Co. from November 2001 until her retirement in March 2014. Prior to this, she served in various roles at Merck including in corporate development, finance and tax. Ms. Yanni currently serves on the Board of Directors of Trevena, Vaccinex, and ABIONYX Pharma, all public biotechnology companies. She earned a J.D. from Stanford Law School and an A.B. from Wellesley College and masters of law in taxation from New York University.

"Barbara is highly regarded for her strong business background, deep knowledge of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and extensive business development background. She will play a central role in helping us achieve our business objectives in the years ahead and we are pleased to welcome her to our board," Dr. McDevitt said.

With the addition of Yanni, Akcea has now increased the authorized number of members of the Board to 10 and increased the number of independent board members from six to seven.

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