Protagonist Therapeutics Appoints Sarah Noonberg, M.D., Ph.D. to the Board of Directors

NEWARK, Calif., Dec. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTGX) today announced the appointment of Sarah Noonberg, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Prothena Corporation plc, to the Protagonist Board of Directors. Dr. Noonberg replaces Julie Papanek Grant, Partner at Canaan Partners, who has stepped down from the Board. Dr. Noonberg has also been appointed a member of the Audit Committee.

"Sarah Noonberg is a highly experienced drug development professional with a proven track record in leading clinical development programs for therapeutics in multiple areas of medicine, including orphan drugs for rare diseases. Her expertise spans from initial drug discovery to global regulatory approvals and commercialization," said Dinesh V. Patel, Ph.D., Protagonist President and Chief Executive Officer. "We believe Protagonist will benefit greatly from her broad experience as we continue to advance our three clinical assets towards the marketplace and move new drug candidates from our peptide discovery platform into clinical development.

"We are extremely thankful to Julie Papanek Grant for her valuable support and guidance to our company over the past several years as a member of the Protagonist Board," he concluded. "Julie played an instrumental role in assisting Protagonist with our private fundraising efforts before our initial public offering in 2016."

Dr. Noonberg has served as Prothena's Chief Medical Officer since May 2017. Prior to joining Prothena, she served as Group Vice President and Head of Global Clinical Development at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals Inc., where she was responsible for development strategy and execution across a diverse clinical portfolio. From 2007 to 2015, Dr. Noonberg held several positions at Medivation, Inc. where, as Senior Vice President of Early Development and Vice President of Clinical Development, she led programs across all phases of development, including enzalutamide for the treatment chemotherapy-naïve metastatic prostate cancer. She also held several clinical positions between 2004 and 2007 at Chiron Corporation, where she led the clinical development of compounds in infectious disease and pulmonary indications. Dr. Noonberg earned her M.D. at the University of California, San Francisco and her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Noonberg is a board-certified internist and completed her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Since 2002, she has been an active part-time hospitalist, working as an attending physician treating a broad range of inpatient and critical care patients.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a proprietary technology platform which is utilized to discover and develop novel peptide-based drugs to address significant unmet medical needs. Its primary focus is on developing potential first-in-class, oral targeted therapy-based peptide drugs that work by blocking biological pathways that are currently targeted by marketed injectable antibody drugs. Protagonist's initial lead peptide product candidates, PTG-100 and PTG-200, are based on this approach, and the company believes these candidates have the potential to transform the existing treatment paradigm for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), consisting primarily of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

PTG-100, a potential first-in-class oral peptide alpha-4-beta-7 integrin antagonist, is currently in a global Phase 2B clinical trial for the treatment of moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis. PTG-200, a potential first-in-class oral Interleukin-23 receptor antagonist in development for the treatment of IBD, initially Crohn's disease, has entered a Phase 1 clinical trial. Protagonist has entered into a worldwide agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc. to co-develop and commercialize PTG-200 for all indications, including IBD.

Outside of the GI space, the company is developing an injectable hepcidin mimetic, PTG-300, for the potential treatment of anemia in iron overload disorders, including rare diseases such as beta-thalassemia and myelodysplastic syndromes. PTG-300 was also discovered through the Company's peptide technology platform and it recently completed a Phase 1 clinical trial.

Protagonist is headquartered in Newark, California with its pre-clinical and clinical staff in California, and discovery operations both in California and in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. For further information, please visit http://www.protagonist-inc.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions or current expectations concerning, among other things, the potential for our programs and our intellectual property. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "will," "expect," or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions.  Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those anticipated, including, but not limited to, our ability to adequately protect our intellectual property.  We discuss many of these risks in greater detail under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which we operate, may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Any forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. We assume no obligation to update our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

SOURCE Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.

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