Emil Kakkis
Founder, Chief Executive Officer and President of Ultragenyx
Dr. Kakkis is best known for his work developing novel treatments for rare diseases and working on policy issues affecting rare and ultra-rare disease treatment and has been part of eleven drug approvals to treat rare genetic diseases. Dr. Kakkis is currently Founder, Chief Executive Officer and President of Ultragenyx, a biotech company focused on developing treatments for rare genetic diseases. He founded Ultragenyx in 2010 to create a company that is uniquely built around a deep and meaningful engagement with patients and their caregivers to fully understand their needs. Ultragenyx has four approved therapies for five rare diseases and multiple late-stage clinical programs treating a wide variety of rare genetic diseases.
Dr. Kakkis is the son of Greek immigrants from Thessaloniki and Drama and raised in the USA. Dr. Kakkis graduated from Pomona College, magna cum laude, and received the Vaile prize for his biology research. He received combined M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the UCLA Medical Scientist Program and received the Bogen Prize for his research upon graduation. He completed a pediatrics residency and a Medical Genetics Training Fellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he was an assistant professor of pediatrics and initiated the enzyme therapy program for MPS I. He joined BioMarin in 1998 where he guided the development and approval of seven treatments for rare diseases.
Dr. Kakkis has received numerous awards including the Life Science Leadership Pantheon award from California Life Sciences, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National MPS Society, the Roscoe O. Brady Award for Innovation and Accomplishment from the WORLDSymposium, and BIO’s Henri Termeer Visionary Leadership award for this transformative work in rare diseases.