Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. announced that its board of directors has appointed Damien McDevitt, Ph.D., a member of its board of directors, as interim chief executive officer, effective immediately. In addition, Michael J. Yang and Joseph ‘Skip' Klein III have joined the company's board of directors. The company also announced the departures of Paula Soteropoulos, chief executive officer, Sarah Boyce, president, and Jeff Goldberg, chief operating officer, effective immediately.

Ms. Soteropoulos and Ms. Boyce have also resigned from the company's board of directors. Ms. Soteropoulos and Mr. Goldberg will serve as advisors to the company to ensure a smooth transition. Dr. McDevitt joins Akcea from Ionis Pharmaceuticals, where he was the chief business officer responsible for leading Ionis' corporate development activities, including corporate communications, investor relations, business development, competitive intelligence and alliance management.

He currently serves on the Akcea board of directors and will remain on the board. Prior to joining Ionis, he served as senior vice president, corporate development at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining ACADIA, Dr. McDevitt was at GSK for more than two decades, where he was instrumental in executing over 70 global business development transactions in multiple therapeutic areas, including severe, rare and neuromuscular diseases.

At GSK he served in various roles with increasing responsibility including vice president, head of business development for R&D Extended Therapy Areas, head of Worldwide Business Development Asia and head of GSK's R&D West Coast Innovation Center. He also worked at GSK Ventures and in anti-infective discovery. Mr. Yang is the executive vice president and chief commercial officer at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to ACADIA, Mr. Yang was at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, where he served as president of Janssen Biotech Inc. and was responsible for building the company's U.S. immunology business, generating more than $8 billion in annual revenues. Mr. Klein has served as a director on the Ionis board since December 2005. He is a founder and currently managing director of Gauss Capital Advisors, LLC.

In this role, he performs due diligence and advises health care investors on opportunities in life sciences. Mr. Klein has also served as a venture partner for two health care venture capital firms: Red Abbey Venture Partners and MPM Capital. He served as vice president, Strategy, for Medical Manager Corporation, a leading developer of physician office management information systems.