Protagonist Therapeutics Reports Granting of Inducement Awards

NEWARK, Calif., Sept. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. PTGX today reported that on August 30, 2019, it issued inducement awards to two recently hired employees in accordance with their employment offer letters. The awards were granted under the Protagonist Therapeutics Inducement Award Plan, which was adopted May 29, 2018. Below is a brief summary of the awards:

• For David Pugatch, M.D., Vice President, Clinical Development, Gastrointestinal Diseases, an option to purchase 50,000 shares of common stock; and
• For Arjun Agarwal, Vice President, Controller, an option to purchase 30,000 shares of common stock.

The exercise price of each option was $13.03, which was the per-share closing price of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market on August 30, 2019.

The shares subject to each option grant vest over a four-year period, with 25 percent of the shares subject to the option vesting on the first anniversary of the employee's date of hire and the remainder vesting in equal monthly installments over the three years thereafter, subject to the employee's continued service with the Company. The awards have a ten year term. The awards were approved by the compensation committee of the Company's board of directors and were granted as an inducement material to the new employees entering into employment with Protagonist Therapeutics in accordance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5635(c)(4).

About Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.

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 in development for the treatment of iron overload anemia and related rare blood diseases. PTG-300 is currently in a global Phase 2 study in beta-thalassemia. PTG-200 is an oral, gut-restricted interleukin-23 receptor specific antagonist peptide in clinical development for the potential treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. The Company has a worldwide license and collaboration agreement with Janssen Biotech for the clinical development of PTG-200 and a Phase 2 study in Crohn's disease is expected in fourth quarter of 2019. PN-943 is an oral, gut-restricted alpha-4-beta-7 integrin specific antagonist peptide in clinical development for the potential treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, with ulcerative colitis as the initial intended indication.

Protagonist is headquartered in Newark, California. For further information, please visit http://www.protagonist-inc.com.  

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SOURCE Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.