Nationally Ranked Shareholder Rights Firm Labaton Sucharow Announces Proprietary Investigation of Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. (AKCA)

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Labaton Sucharow LLP, a leading and award winning investor rights law firm, announces it is investigating potential breach of fiduciary duty claims on behalf of shareholders of Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKCA).

Akcea is a development and commercialization company focused on helping patients with serious diseases. Akcea purports to drive clinical program execution, understand patient and physician needs, prepare the market, create market access, and commercialize products on a global basis.

Our investigation arises from an analysis of pharmaceutical company Ionis, a majority, controlling stockholder of Akcea. In 2010, Ionis entered into a collaboration agreement with Glaxo Group Limited (“GSK”), pursuant to which Ionis would develop inotersen, an antisense drug for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis (“ATTR”), and GSK would shoulder the research costs and share in the profits after inotersen’s commercialization.

In 2017, amid inotersen safety concerns and increased pressure from a rival drug, GSK decided to abandon its seven-year collaboration with Ionis. Facing substantial near-term expenses relating to the commercialization of inotersen, Ionis turned to Akcea, a company in which Ionis had an approximately 68% ownership stake and substantial board representation.

Our proprietary investigation suggests that Ionis pressured Akcea to agree to an unfair deal on an expedited timeframe (i.e., within a matter of weeks) and presented the Company with overly optimistic projections for inotersen in an attempt to justify the unfair proposal.

If you purchased shares of Akcea, and wish to learn more or discuss the issues surrounding the investigation, please contact David J. Schwartz using the toll free number [phone] or via email at [e-mail] or [e-mail].

About the Firm

Labaton Sucharow LLP is one of the world’s leading complex litigation firms representing clients in securities, antitrust, corporate governance and shareholder rights, and consumer cybersecurity and data privacy litigation. Labaton Sucharow has been recognized for its excellence by the courts and peers, and it is consistently ranked in leading industry publications. Offices are located in New York, NY, Wilmington, DE, and Washington, D.C. More information about Labaton Sucharow is available at http://www.labaton.com.