Protagonist Therapeutics Names Richard S. Shames, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer

MILPITAS, Calif., Sept. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc., a company developing novel, orally stable peptide therapeutics for gastrointestinal diseases and disorders, today announced the appointment of Richard S. Shames, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Shames, most recently Senior Vice President and CMO at Aldea Pharmaceuticals, joins Protagonist with over 25 years of experience in clinical medicine and the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry.

"Richard Shames has a long track record of success in leadership positions in clinical drug development across multiple autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, which will serve Protagonist well as we initiate clinical trials of our lead oral peptide, PTG-100, for inflammatory bowel diseases," said Dinesh Patel, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Protagonist. "His background includes oversight of the clinical development of novel small molecule and biologics programs at both clinical-stage biotechnology companies and global pharmaceutical firms. I am very pleased to welcome Richard to the Protagonist executive team."

"I am excited to join Protagonist Therapeutics as it advances its lead asset PTG-100 toward clinical trials," stated Dr. Shames. "There is a significant opportunity to bring targeted, orally stable therapies to patients who are affected by inflammatory bowel disease. I look forward to advancing our novel treatments into clinical development and potentially into therapeutic use."

Prior to joining Aldea, Dr. Shames was Distinguished Scientist, Clinical Research and Early Biologics Lead (Immunology) at Merck & Co., Inc. There he led the early stage development of novel biologics and biosimilar programs for over four years, including the clinical development of an anti-IL23p19 monoclonal antibody in psoriasis, currently in Phase 3 studies. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Shames held positions of increasing responsibility at Facet Biotech (formerly PDL Biopharma) over the course of 10 years prior to that company's acquisition by Abbott, including management of Facet's immunology development pipeline, as Therapeutic Area Head of Immunology. Before joining the life sciences industry, Dr. Shames held full time clinical faculty positions in Pediatric Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco Schools of Medicine. He received his M.D. degree from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics is a U.S.-incorporated biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of orally stable peptides as targeted therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and other gastrointestinal diseases and disorders. The company has an innovative and proprietary technology platform that enables it to develop potent and orally stable peptides against protein-protein interaction (PPI) targets that are otherwise undruggable by small molecules and therefore have historically been approached largely by injectable antibodies. Oral peptides may lead to a superior and safer choice for IBD patients, physicians, and payers by virtue of their better convenience and compliance, and potentially enhanced safety and efficacy in comparison to other therapeutic options. The company is nearing the completion of IND-enabling studies of an alpha-4-beta-7 integrin-specific oral peptide antagonist PTG-100, and has several other assets including an oral IL-23 receptor antagonist in different stages of research and pre-clinical development.

Protagonist is headquartered in Milpitas, California USA and is a spin-out from the University of Queensland's Institute of Molecular Biosciences (IMB).  The company has its pre-clinical and clinical operations in California, and discovery operations both in California and in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. For further information, please visit http://www.protagonist-inc.com.

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SOURCE Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.

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