Akcea Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: AKCA), a majority-owned affiliate of Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc, has named Kia Motesharei, PhD as its new senior vice president of Business Development & Corporate Strategy, it was reported on Tuesday.

In the new role, Dr Motesharei is to manage business development activities at Akcea and will continue to improve the corporate strategy in collaboration with the Akcea leadership team.

Dr Motesharei has over 20 years of business and corporate development and strategy experience with multinational companies. Prior to joining Akcea Therapeutics, Dr Motesharei served Merck KGaA for six-years, where he most recently served as vice president and global head of Licensing and Business Development, Neurology & Immunology. He has also held the positions of vice president of Business Development & Alliance Management at Dyax Corp, chief business Officer at Genfit and vice president of Corporate Development at ActivX.