Protagonist Therapeutics Reports Granting of Inducement Award

NEWARK, Calif., Jan. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. PTGX today reported that on Jan. 15, 2019, it issued an inducement award to Suneel Gupta, Ph.D., the Company's recently hired Executive Vice President of Clinical Operations and Pharmacology, in accordance with the terms of Dr. Gupta's employment offer letter. The award was granted under the Protagonist Therapeutics Inducement Award Plan, which was adopted May 29, 2018.

The inducement award consists of an option to purchase 110,000 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock and has a ten-year term. The exercise price of the option was $7.38, which was the per-share closing price of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market on Jan. 15, 2018. The option vests over a four-year period, with 25 percent vesting on the first anniversary of the employee's date of hire and the remainder vesting in equal monthly installments over three years thereafter. The award was approved by the Protagonist Therapeutics board of directors compensation committee and was granted as an inducement material to the new employee entering into employment with Protagonist Therapeutics in accordance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5635(c)(4).

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that utilizes a proprietary technology platform to discover and develop novel peptide-based drugs to transform existing treatment paradigms for patients with significant unmet medical needs. PTG-300 is an injectable hepcidin mimetic for the potential treatment of anemia and iron overload related to rare blood diseases with an initial focus on beta thalassemia. PTG-200 is an oral peptide interleukin-23 receptor antagonist in development for the treatment of Crohn's disease. The company has entered into a worldwide license and collaboration agreement with Janssen Biotech for the clinical development of PTG-200. PN-10943 is an oral, gut-restricted alpha-4-beta-7 integrin antagonist peptide in development for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.

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

SOURCE Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.