Graham Cooper Appointed Chief Financial Officer of Receptos

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Receptos, Inc. announced today that Graham Cooper has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Cooper joins the company after serving as Chief Financial Officer of Geron Corporation and Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc.

"Graham brings to Receptos tremendous strategic insight and financial experience, including Orexigen's successful initial public offering," said Faheem Hasnain, President and Chief Executive Officer of Receptos. "Graham will play a key leadership role as we capitalize Receptos to execute on our clinical development strategy. He joins us at a particularly exciting time, having initiated the Phase 2 portion of our randomized Phase 2/3 study for RPC1063, which has the potential to be the next S1P1R modulator to market in relapsing multiple sclerosis."

Added Mr. Cooper, "I see a great deal of promise in Receptos' pipeline of therapeutics as well as its skilled leadership team. Receptos is a fast-moving company with a history of strong execution, and I look forward to our evolution into a late-stage clinical development organization."

Cooper joins Receptos from Geron, where he served as EVP-Finance and Chief Financial Officer. In this capacity, he led investor relations and financial activities and served on the Executive Management Committee that oversaw clinical, research, regulatory and financial activities. Prior to Geron, he served as SVP-Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Orexigen from 2006 to 2012. During his tenure, Orexigen raised over $300 million in public and private equity, including $80 million through an initial public offering. Earlier in his career, he served as Director of healthcare banking for Deutsche Bank and as a Senior Accountant for Deloitte & Touche, where he earned his CPA. He received a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

About Receptos
Receptos is a biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutic candidates for the treatment of immune and metabolic diseases. The company's lead program, RPC1063, is a potential best-in-class sphingosine 1-phosphate 1 receptor (S1P1R) small molecule modulator for immune indications, including relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Receptos is currently enrolling patients into the randomized Phase 2 portion of a Phase 2/3 study examining the efficacy of RPC1063 in RMS and a randomized Phase 2 study examining the efficacy of RPC1063 in ulcerative colitis (UC). Receptos has established expertise in high resolution protein crystal structure determination, biology and drug discovery for G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). This expertise has formed the basis of collaborations with Eli Lilly and Ono Pharmaceutical and a partnership with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. For more information visit www.receptos.com.

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SOURCE Receptos, Inc.