WALTHAM, Mass., April 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ardelyx, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARDX), a biopharmaceutical company founded with a mission to discover, develop and commercialize innovative, first-in-class medicines that meet significant unmet medical needs, today announced the appointment of Merdad Parsey, M.D., Ph.D. to the company’s board of directors.

“We are thrilled to welcome Merdad to our board of directors,” said Mike Raab, president and chief executive officer of Ardelyx. “Merdad is a veteran biotech leader and clinician with a commitment to patients that aligns with the Ardelyx vision of a healthier tomorrow for patients. His broad leadership experience spans the entire pharmaceutical development lifecycle and multiple therapeutic areas, and his deep expertise in research and early development as well as clinical strategy will be critical as we look to grow our company by building a pipeline of important medicines.”

"I am very pleased to join the board of Ardelyx, especially at this time which is so critical for the company’s future,” said Dr. Parsey. “Ardelyx has defined itself as a company deeply committed to patients: delivering first-in-class medicines, focusing on patient access and disrupting expectations for how to commercialize new therapeutic agents. I look forward to working closely with the Ardelyx team to support the next phase of the company’s development as it seeks to accelerate the growth of the existing commercial products while building a pipeline of medicines that can help more patients with unmet needs.”

Dr. Parsey brings more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biopharma industries in a variety of clinical development and leadership roles. Most recently, Dr. Parsey served as the chief medical officer at Gilead Sciences, Inc. from 2019 until his retirement in 2025. Prior to Gilead, from 2015 to 2019, Dr. Parsey served as senior vice president of early clinical development at Genentech, Inc. From 2010 to 2015, Dr. Parsey served as the chief executive officer of 3-V Biosciences (now Sagimet Biosciences). Earlier in his career, Dr. Parsey held roles of increasing responsibility in the field of clinical development at companies including Sepracor, Regeneron and Merck.

Dr. Parsey currently serves on the board of directors of Sagimet Biosciences Inc. and ArriVent Biopharma, Inc. Dr. Parsey received his B.S. in microbiology and biochemistry at the University of Maryland and his M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. He completed his internal medicine residency at Stanford University and his pulmonary and critical care fellowship at the University of Colorado. Dr. Parsey was Assistant Professor of Medicine and Director of Critical Care Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine.

About Ardelyx
Ardelyx was founded with a mission to discover, develop and commercialize innovative, first-in-class medicines that meet significant unmet medical needs. Ardelyx has two commercial products approved in the United States, IBSRELA^® (tenapanor) and XPHOZAH^® (tenapanor) as well as early-stage pipeline candidates. Ardelyx has agreements for the development and commercialization of tenapanor outside of the U.S. Kyowa Kirin commercializes PHOZEVEL^® (tenapanor) for hyperphosphatemia in Japan. A New Drug Application for tenapanor for hyperphosphatemia has been approved in China with Fosun Pharma. Knight Therapeutics commercializes IBSRELA in Canada. For more information, please visit https://ardelyx.com/ and connect with us on X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn and Facebook.

Investor and Media Contacts:
Caitlin Lowie
clowie@ardelyx.com