ESPERION Appoints Sheldon Koenig as Chief Operating Officer

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Esperion (NASDAQ: ESPR) today announced the appointment of Sheldon Koenig, a proven leader in the cardiovascular market, as chief operating officer, effective today. Koenig will report directly to Tim M. Mayleben, president and chief executive officer of Esperion. Koenig joins the executive team of Esperion and will provide vision, leadership, strategy and operations expertise to further evolve Esperion into a commercial leader in cardiovascular medicine, as well as a highly successful, efficiently operated global company.  

“Sheldon brings an incredible amount of relevant experience to our company that will be familiar to all of our stakeholders. His commercial knowledge and applied learnings in directly correlated launches will be invaluable to us and we are pleased to have him join Esperion,” said Tim M. Mayleben, president and chief executive officer of Esperion. “Sheldon is the right leader at the right time to navigate our company through the opportunities that lie ahead of us as we continue a period of rapid growth as a company in 2021 and beyond.”

Koenig is an accomplished leader in the cardiovascular space and brings over 25 years of leadership roles to Esperion. Most recently, he served as executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Portola pharmaceuticals until it was acquired by Alexion. At Portola, Koenig and his team delivered $130M+ in Andexxa sales in the first year of commercialization, making it one of the top five most successful hospital launches in 30 years. Prior to joining Portola, Koenig was senior vice president and head of the cardiovascular franchise for Sanofi where he led U.S. business operations and product launches in more than 20 countries. Previously, he served as vice president and global brand leader for the cardiovascular division of Merck & Co, Inc. where, for more than 25 years, he took on roles of increasing responsibility within the Company’s cardiovascular and thrombosis franchises and led marketing for the launch of ezetimibe.

“Joining Esperion gives me the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on an organization that has incredible potential to make a difference in the lives of patients where currently marketed medicines fall short,” said Koenig. “The company is in a unique position to deliver with two recently approved and launched medicines in a market that is neglected in terms of innovation and where physicians and patients alike can benefit from additional therapeutic options. I am excited to join Esperion at such an exciting stage and apply the collective learnings from my complementary experiences to help execute on the Esperion mission of lipid management for everyone.”