Akcea Expands Board of Directors with Appointment of Dr. Amber Salzman

BOSTON, Feb. 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKCA), a majority-owned affiliate of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced the appointment of Amber Salzman, Ph.D., to the Company’s Board of Directors, expanding the board to 11 members. Dr. Salzman has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry including serving as chief executive officer (CEO) of several companies, both publicly traded and private.

“Amber’s experience in leading and growing successful pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, coupled with her expertise and personal interest in rare disease, makes her a great addition to our Board,” said B. Lynne Parshall, J.D., chairman of the board at Akcea. “Her strong business background will be very important as we continue to advance our pipeline of novel therapeutics and execute on our commercial strategies for TEGSEDI (inotersen) in the U.S., Europe and Canada and WAYLIVRA (volanesorsen) in Europe.”

Dr. Salzman is the President and CEO of Ohana Biosciences, a company with a mission to transform reproductive health through the industry’s first sperm biology platform. She previously served as the president and CEO of Adverum Biotechnologies and was a co-founder of Annapurna, SAS, where she served as president and CEO prior to its merger with Avalanche Biosciences to become Adverum. Dr. Salzman was also a member of the GlaxoSmithKline research and development executive team where she was responsible for operations in drug development across multiple therapeutic areas. In addition to her roles in industry, Dr. Salzman is the president of the Stop ALD Foundation, a medical research foundation dedicated to finding effective therapies for people with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) and advocating on behalf of people living with rare diseases. She played a leading role in establishing the first gene therapy human proof-of-concept for ALD and in adding ALD to the national recommended list of diseases for which newborns should be screened.

Dr. Salzman received her bachelor’s degree from Temple University and holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Bryn Mawr College. Honors include being inducted into Temple University's League of Entrepreneurial Women Hall of Fame.

“Advocating on behalf of people living with rare disease and working to bring them better treatment options, or in some cases a first-ever treatment, has been a passion of mine for many years. I have been familiar with the work being done at Akcea for some time and am honored to join the board,” said Dr. Salzman. “Akcea has made great progress in advancing its pipeline of promising therapies. I look forward to applying my experience to help the company bring more transformative treatments to people around the world who continue to live with rare diseases.”