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.
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SOURCE Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.