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Akcea Therapeutics Steps Up Commercialization Efforts In Europe

 
• By John Davis

With one rare disease drug already available in Europe, and a second imminent, Akcea’s CEO outlined in a Scrip interview the European plans for this still-youthful US biotech.

Europe
Europe has to be approached as a series of individual countries for marketing purposes • Source: Shutterstock

The European commercialization efforts for Akcea Therapeutics Inc.’s second antisense product, Waylivra (volanesorsen), discovered by Ionis Pharmaceuticals and co-developed by the two firms, will build on the infrastructure the US-headquartered Akcea has put in place over the past year for its first antisense product, Tegsedi (inotersen, licensed from Ionis), which is just starting to garner its first sales in the region.

Tegsedi was cleared for marketing in the EU by the European Commission in July 2018 for the treatment of Stage...

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