Akebia Therapeutics appoints Rita Jain as SVP and CMO

Akebia Therapeutics has appointed Rita Jain, M.D. as Senior VP and CMO. She will be responsible for leading the clinical development of the Company’s HIF pipeline, including the global Phase 3 development program for vadadustat. Dr. Jain succeeds Brad Maroni, M.D. who will remain at Akebia as a medical advisor.

Dr. Jain joins Akebia from AbbVie where she most recently was the Vice President of Men’s and Women’s Health and Metabolic Development. During her time at AbbVie and Abbott she oversaw the development of more than 15 new chemical entities and marketed products. She has also held leadership roles at Pharmacia Corp, as well as a faculty position at the North Shore University Hospital where she was the Director of the Program in Novel Therapeutics. Dr. Jain earned her M.D. at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine and her B.S. from LIU/C.W. Post.

Akebia president and CEO, John P. Butler said that Rita has more than 20 years of drug development experience, and having directed multiple registration trials as well as a large cardiovascular patient outcomes-driven trial, her expertise will be particularly relevant to her role at Akebia. Her experience working with key opinion leaders and collaborators will be important as they complete clinical development of vadadustat, prepare for regulatory submissions and set the stage for commercialization. He thanked Brad for his many contributions to the development of vadadustat and their pipeline, and they are pleased that he will be an advisor to Akebia.