Laura has served as our Chief Medical Officer since 2021, having joined Ardelyx in November 2020 as our Senior Vice President, Global Therapeutic Strategies and Patient Advocacy. Laura is a life science enterprise leader with extensive experience as a pharmaceutical drug developer, healthcare policy advisor, patient advocate, and portfolio strategist. She is an accomplished, results-oriented, physician scientist and board member who is committed to discovering, developing, and commercializing innovative therapies that address unmet medical need. With 25+ years of pharmaceutical experience, across all clinical development phases and multiple therapeutic areas, in both large pharma and smaller biotech, she has a proven track-record in drug development, as indicated by her leadership and major contributions toward eight drug approvals.
Prior to Ardelyx, Laura served as senior vice president and head of clinical development and biostatistics at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for four investigational-staged assets and two on-market compounds. Prior to AMAG, she served as vice president of clinical development at Myovant Sciences, where she was responsible for an investigational infertility compound and co-led business development activities to expand the women’s health pipeline. Previously, in her 18-year career at Abbott/AbbVie, she held roles of increasing responsibility, leading multiple global clinical development programs and managing the general medicine therapeutic area.
Laura earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Mississippi State University, a Doctor of Medicine degree from University of Iowa, and a Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology from University of Washington, where she also completed a clinical fellowship in infectious diseases. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at University of Michigan, where she also served as Chief Resident and Junior Faculty.
