Protagonist Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Asif Ali as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

NEWARK, Calif., March 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) today announced the appointment of Asif Ali as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). In this role, Asif's responsibilities will extend across all finance-related functions within the Company, including financial planning and analysis, taxation, accounting and financial reporting, finance operations, investor relations, and strategic partnership-related financings.

"I am extremely pleased to welcome Asif to Protagonist as our new CFO," said Dinesh V. Patel, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Protagonist. "His track record of success includes leadership and execution of the complex financial aspects of product commercialization, strategic partnerships, and long-term business strategy. His deep industry expertise, combined with his leadership skill and strength of character, make Asif an excellent addition to our executive team. I look forward to working closely with him in fulfilling and further expanding the promise of our clinical product pipeline in support of patients."

Asif will join Protagonist in mid-April. He comes to Protagonist from Theravance Biopharma, where he served as Chief Accounting Officer. At Theravance, Asif's scope of oversight and contributions included equity and asset-backed financings, strategic collaborations, finance operations, and international tax planning. Asif's prior work as Vice President and Controller at Depomed, Inc. included support of five product launches, four successful product acquisitions, and a significant financing from the sale of future royalties.

"Protagonist is poised for substantial growth as it continues to advance its robust pipeline of drug candidates," Asif stated. "As someone who has had the opportunity to serve in leadership positions with a number of strong companies, I am especially excited about Protagonist's future potential to deliver value to patients and other stakeholders. I'm thrilled to join this seasoned executive team on the journey ahead."

About Protagonist

Protagonist Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company with multiple peptide-based new chemical entities in different stages of clinical development, all derived from the Company's proprietary technology platform.

Protagonist's pipeline includes rusfertide, an investigational, injectable hepcidin mimetic currently in the REVIVE Phase 2 proof-of-concept clinical trial for polycythemia vera (PV), the PACIFIC Phase 2 study in PV subjects with high hematocrit levels, and a recently completed Phase 2a study for hereditary hemochromatosis. The Company has opened sites and initiated patient screening for VERIFY, a single, global Phase 3 randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of a once weekly, subcutaneously self-administered dose of rusfertide.

The Company is also evaluating an orally delivered, gut-restricted alpha-4-beta-7 integrin specific antagonist peptide (PN-943), currently in the IDEAL Phase 2 study in adults with moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis. The Company is targeting ulcerative colitis as the initial indication. Data readout from the Phase 2 study is expected in the second quarter of 2022.

Protagonist has granted Janssen an exclusive worldwide license to research, develop and commercialize oral IL-23 receptor antagonists based on the Company's intellectual property. Current development efforts are centered on PN-235, discovered by Protagonist and further developed in collaboration with Janssen. FRONTIER 1, a Phase 2b multicenter, randomized, placebo controlled, dose-ranging study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of PN-235 for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, commenced in early 2022.

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, our product pipeline, management team and growth.  In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "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 develop and commercialize our product candidates, our ability to earn milestone payments under our collaboration agreements, the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on our discovery and development efforts, our ability to use and expand our programs to build a pipeline of product candidates, our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our product candidates, our ability to operate in a competitive industry and compete successfully against competitors that have greater resources than we do, and our ability to obtain and adequately protect intellectual property rights for our product candidates.  Additional information concerning these and other risk factors affecting our business can be found in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in our most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q 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.