“To be truly dedicated,” Ardelyx Chief Executive Officer Mike Raab says, “you have to have some fearlessness. To be inclusive, you have to have some fearlessness. And to be fearless means you can look people in the eye and tell them they’re safe.”
Now more than 15 years into his tenure as head of the patient care company, Raab has made a career out of doing just that—but, by definition, it’s just the beginning. His biography page quotes Socrates: “If I am the wisest man alive, it is for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
Which is to say, in the field of medicine, there’s always more work to do. “As an industry,” Raab said, “we have a responsibility to serve the millions of patients around the world who continue to suffer from diseases that either have no treatments or for who treatments provide little in terms of efficacy and tolerability.”
Prior to joining Ardelyx, Raab worked for more than 15 years in commercial and operating leadership roles at biotech and pharmaceutical firms, including as a partner at New Enterprise Associates, where he specialized in healthcare investments. He has also been on the Board of Amicus Therapeutics for more than 20 years, and became Chairman last year.
Under Raab’s leadership, Ardelyx has thrived and recently presented data supporting IBSRELA, an FDA-approved drug designed to treat irritable bowel syndrome, one of its two approved drugs in the U.S. The other, XPHOZAH, was approved by the FDA in 2023 to help treat chronic kidney disease.
For Raab, a graduate of DePauw University, it’s his team’s breakthroughs that help him continue to push frontiers in medicine. They inspire him and his mission, and keep Ardelyx at the forefront of innovation in healthcare.
“Our employees are passionately dedicated to creating new medicines and work tirelessly to enhance the care and well-being of underserved patients,” he said. “They are what motivate me each and every day.”
