Laura Williams, MD, MPH

Dr. Laura A. Williams served as Ardelyx’s first Chief Patient Officer from 2025 until her retirement in September 2026. She joined Ardelyx in November 2020 as Senior Vice President, Global Therapeutic Strategies and Patient Advocacy and was promoted to Chief Medical Officer in 2021. During her tenure, Laura was instrumental in the approval and launch of Ardelyx’s first two commercial products. As the company’s inaugural Chief Patient Officer, she also helped establish patient centricity as an enduring organizational principle — embedding patient perspectives and experiences across the company and helping ensure that patients’ needs and priorities inform how Ardelyx develops medicines and serves the communities that depend on them. In recognition of her enduring contributions to Ardelyx and the patient communities it serves, she holds the honorary title of Chief Patient Officer Emeritus.

A physician-scientist with nearly 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, Laura previously held leadership roles at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Myovant Sciences, and Abbott/AbbVie, contributing to nine drug approvals and product launches over the course of her career. She earned her medical degree from the University of Iowa, completed her Internal Medicine training at the University of Michigan, and completed an Infectious Disease Fellowship at the University of Washington, where she also earned a Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

– Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.