Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. today announced the closing of its initial public offering of 17,968,750 shares common stock at a public offering price of $8.00 per share, including 2,343,750 shares of common stock issued upon full exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional shares. The gross proceeds from the offering were $143.8 millionbefore deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses to be paid by Akcea. Akcea's common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "AKCA."

In addition, Novartis Pharma AG purchased $50.0 million of Akcea's common stock in a separate private placement concurrent with the completion of Akcea's initial public offering at a price per share equal to the initial public offering price.

Cowen, Stifel and Wells Fargo Securities acted as joint book running managers for the offering. BMO Capital Markets acted as lead manager for the offering.

ABOUT AKCEA THERAPEUTICS

Akcea Therapeutics is a late-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing drugs to treat patients with serious cardiometabolic diseases caused by lipid disorders. Akcea is advancing a mature pipeline of four novel drugs with the potential to treat multiple diseases, including volanesorsen, AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx, AKCEA-ANGPTL3-LRx and AKCEA-APOCIII-LRx, which are all based on antisense technology developed by Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The most advanced drug in its pipeline, volanesorsen, has successfully completed a Phase 3 clinical program for the treatment of familial chylomicronemia syndrome, or FCS, and is currently in Phase 3 clinical development for the treatment of familial partial lipodystrophy, or FPL. Akcea is assembling the infrastructure to commercialize its drugs globally with a focus on lipid specialists as the primary call point. Akcea is a subsidiary of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.