Protagonist Therapeutics Reports Granting of Inducement Award

NEWARK, Calif., Aug. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:PTGX) today reported that on August 15, 2018, it issued an inducement award to Niall Murphy, the Company's recently hired Vice President, Corporate Controller, in accordance with the terms of Mr. Murphy'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 25,000 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock and has a ten-year term. The exercise price of the option was $8.58, which was the per-share closing price of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market on August 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, 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-100 is an oral alpha-4-beta-7 integrin antagonist peptide that is under evaluation for potential treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases. The company's interleukin-23 receptor antagonist peptide, PTG-200, is currently in a Phase 1 clinical trial in healthy volunteers to support a Phase 2 study in Crohn's disease. The IL-12/23 pathway blockade is an approach that has been validated through an FDA-approved injectable antibody drug. The company has entered into a worldwide license and collaboration agreement with Janssen Biotech for the clinical development of PTG-200. Protagonist has also applied its innovative peptide platform outside of gastrointestinal disease areas and is developing an injectable hepcidin mimetic, PTG-300, for the potential treatment of anemia and iron overload related to rare blood diseases with an initial focus on beta-thalassemia. The company has completed a Phase 1 clinical trial of PTG-300, which established pharmacodynamic-based clinical proof-of-concept in normal healthy volunteers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation to PTG-300 for beta-thalassemia. Treatment of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, hereditary hemochromatosis and polycythemia vera represent additional opportunities for future development of PTG-300.

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.