Avidity Biosciences Taps Former Akcea Exec Sarah Boyce as New CEO

Avidity Biosciences, a private biotech in La Jolla, CA, on Tuesday announced that it has brought aboard Sarah Boyce as its president and CEO. Last month Boyce left her position as president of rare disease drug developer Akcea Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKCA]])—a Boston-based spinout of San Diego’s Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IONS]])—as part of an unexplained management shakeup. Avidity, which is developing drugs that combine antibodies and oligonucleotides to treat muscle diseases, says it is preparing to start its first clinical study.

Author: Sarah de Crescenzo

Sarah is Xconomy's San Diego-based editor. Prior to joining the team in 2018, she wrote about startups, tech and finance at the San Diego Business Journal. Her decade of full-time news experience includes coverage of subjects including campaign finance, crime and courts as a reporter and editor at outlets throughout California, including the Orange County Register. She earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature at UC San Diego, where she wrote for the student newspaper and played collegiate lacrosse. In 2019, she earned an MBA at UC Irvine.