Akcea Therapeutics Promotes Damien McDevitt to CEO

Akcea Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKCA]]) has appointed Damien McDevitt as its chief executive officer. McDevitt had been serving as the Boston company’s interim CEO since September 2019, when CEO Paula Soteropoulos, president Sarah Boyce, and chief operating officer Jeff Goldberg left in a sudden management shakeup.

Akcea is advancing a group of experimental rare disease drugs discovered by Carlsbad, CA-based Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IONS]]). Akcea spun out from Ionis as a public company in 2017 but Ionis owns the majority of the biotech’s shares. McDevitt joined Ionis as its chief business officer in June 2018 from Acadia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACAD]]), where he served as senior vice president, corporate development. His experience also includes business development roles at GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: [[ticker:GSK]]).

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.