Akcea Appoints New Senior Vice President, Global Medical Affairs

BOSTON, July 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKCA), a majority-owned affiliate of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that Christophe Hotermans, M.D., Ph.D., has joined the company as senior vice president of global medical affairs where he will lead and evolve the execution of medical strategies, activities and operations worldwide in collaboration with executive management.

"We are pleased to welcome Christophe to our leadership team and believe that his clinical experience and his experience leading the medical affairs function, including KOL engagement, medical communications and launch readiness, will be invaluable to the team," said Dr. William Andrews, chief medical officer at Akcea. "His expertise in developing global medical strategies in specialty care and rare diseases will be a great asset and will provide strategic expertise as we continue to successfully execute on our two commercial launches across the world."

Dr. Hotermans' career has spanned more than 20 years, including more than 12 years in the biotechnology industry, where he held various roles in drug safety, International, U.S. and Global medical affairs, and the launch of five products across multiple therapeutic areas in specialty care and rare diseases. Prior to joining Akcea, Dr. Hotermans' served at Biogen for more than a decade in various roles, most recently as vice president and head of U.S. medical, where he was responsible for the U.S. medical strategy and execution across all therapeutic areas, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, movement disorders and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Prior to Biogen, he was chief of the neurology clinic at the University of Liège in Belgium.

Dr. Hotermans received his medical degree and Ph.D. in medical sciences from The University of Liège, Belgium. He is an active member of The European Neurological Society, American Academy of Neurology and Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) and has also authored multiple peer-reviewed journal publications.

"It is an exciting time to join Akcea as the company makes important advances of multiple promising pipeline products and progress with the rollout of TEGSEDI and WAYLIVRA globally," said Dr. Hotermans. "I look forward to working with executive leadership, the medical affairs teams and engaging with doctors to bring transformational medicines to patients in need who are living with serious and rare diseases."

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)-L_Rx, vupanorsen (AKCEA-ANGPTL3-L_Rx), AKCEA-APOCIII-L_Rx, and AKCEA-TTR-L_Rx, 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.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT
This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding the business of Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. Any statement describing Akcea's goals, expectations, financial or other projections, intentions or beliefs, including the commercial potential of Akcea's medicines in development is a forward-looking statement and should be considered an at-risk statement. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, particularly those inherent in the process of discovering, developing and commercializing medicines that are safe and effective for use as human therapeutics, and in the endeavor of building a business around such medicines. Akcea's forward-looking statements also involve assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove correct, could cause its results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although Akcea's forward-looking statements reflect the good faith judgment of its management, these statements are based only on facts and factors currently known by Akcea. In particular, we caution you that our forward-looking statements are subject to the ongoing and developing circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operations and future financial results. As a result, you are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These and other risks concerning Akcea's programs are described in additional detail in Akcea's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual reports on Form 10-K, which are on file with the SEC. Copies of these and other documents are available from the company.

In this press release, unless the context requires otherwise, "Ionis," "Akcea," "Company," "Companies," "we," "our," and "us" refers to Ionis Pharmaceuticals and/or Akcea Therapeutics.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals^™ is a trademark of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Akcea Therapeutics^®, TEGSEDI^® and WAYLIVRA^® are trademarks of Akcea Therapeutics, Inc.

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SOURCE Akcea Therapeutics, Inc.