Davis Polk advised the underwriters in connection with an initial public offering of 17,968,750 shares of common stock of Akcea Therapeutics, Inc., including shares sold pursuant to the full exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option, at $8.00 per share, for total gross proceeds of $143.8 million. Akcea Therapeutics’s common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “AKCA.”

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Akcea Therapeutics is a late stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing drugs to treat patients with serious cardiometabolic diseases caused by lipid disorders. Akcea Therapeutics is advancing a mature pipeline of four novel drugs with the potential to treat multiple diseases.

The Davis Polk corporate team included partner Alan F. Denenberg and associates Marcus K. Hintze and Leeann Overstreet. Counsel Michelle Ontiveros Gross and associate Jason J. Bang provided intellectual property and technology advice. Partner Rachel D. Kleinberg and former associate Lena X. Qiu provided tax advice. Counsel Marcie A. Goldstein provided FINRA advice. Associate Brantley Hawkins provided 1940 Act advice. Members of the Davis Polk team are based in the Northern California and New York offices.