Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. announced the appointments of Lynne Parshall, J.D., as chair of the Akcea Board of Directors and Barbara Yanni as a new member of the board. Both positions are effective immediately. Ms. Parshall has served as a member of Akcea’s Board of Directors since January 2015. She replaces Christopher Gabrieli, who will continue to serve as a board member. Ms. Parshall is also currently a director and senior strategic advisor to Ionis Pharmaceuticals. She previously served as chief operating officer at Ionis from 1991-2018 where she was responsible for overseeing business operations in diverse areas including finance, legal, intellectual property, manufacturing, information technology, regulatory and alliance management, health and safety, corporate communications and business and corporate development. In addition, she participated in both development and research management committees. Ms. Yanni was vice president and chief licensing officer at Merck & Co. from November 2001 until her retirement in March 2014. Prior to this, she served in various roles at Merck including in corporate development, finance and tax. Ms. Yanni currently serves on the Board of Directors of Trevena, Inc., Vaccinex, Inc. and ABIONYX Pharma, all public biotechnology companies. Ms. Yanni was also appointed as a member of the Affiliate Transactions Committee and the Audit Committee of the company’s Board of Directors, effective December 13, 2019.