ProNAi Strengthens Leadership Team; Opens Vancouver Corporate Headquarters

VANCOUVER, June 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ - ProNAi Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage oncology company pioneering a novel class of therapeutics based on its proprietary DNAi technology platform, today announced that it has further strengthened its management team with the addition of three experienced senior executives. The company also announced that it has opened its corporate headquarters in Vancouver, located at 2150 - 885 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6C 3E8. The company continues to maintain research operations in Plymouth, Michigan.

Joining the company are:

• Sukhi Jagpal, CA, CBV, MBA, Chief Financial Officer
• Simon Eastman, Ph.D., Vice President of Global Manufacturing and Technical Operations
• Diane Gardiner, Vice President of Human Resources

"With the recruitment of these three seasoned executives, we have complemented our senior leadership team in order to focus on rapidly advancing our registration-oriented clinical development program for our lead DNAi product candidate, PNT2258, as well as preparing for its potential future commercialization," said Dr. Nick Glover, President and CEO of ProNAi. "We have also opened our new corporate headquarters in Vancouver, Canada, a world-leading center in the field of lipid nanoparticle drug delivery, an important technology underlying our proprietary DNAi platform approach to the treatment of cancer."

Sukhi Jagpal, Chief Financial Officer
Sukhi Jagpal joins ProNAi as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Previously, Sukhi was the CFO of QLT Inc., a dual-listed biotechnology company based in Vancouver (Nasdaq:QLTI; TSX:QLT). During his tenure, he assisted QLT in developing its finance capabilities to deal with several growth phases, which included raising capital and completing several acquisitions. Prior to joining QLT in 2003, Sukhi held senior finance positions with Pivotal Corporation, 360networks inc. and KPMG LLP.  Sukhi is a Chartered Accountant, a Chartered Business Valuator and holds an MBA from the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University, Ithaca and an MBA from Queen's University, Kingston.

Simon Eastman, Ph.D., Vice President of Global Manufacturing and Technical Operations
Dr. Simon Eastman joins ProNAi as Vice President, Global Manufacturing and Technical Operations. Dr. Eastman has more than 25 years of experience in research, development and manufacturing of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations.  Dr. Eastman obtained his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Pieter Cullis at the University of British Columbia, a global thought-leader in the field of LNP drug delivery. Over the past twelve years, Dr. Eastman was Director of Research and Development at Northern Lipids, a leading contract manufacturer specializing in LNP drug production across numerous therapeutic areas. Prior to this, for ten years he worked in R&D at Genzyme Corporation, where he helped develop non-viral gene therapy formulations for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, including the development of novel aerosolized formulations.

Diane Gardiner, Vice President of Human Resources
Diane Gardiner joins ProNAi as Vice President of Human Resources.  Ms. Gardiner is an accomplished Human Resources professional with more than 20 years of experience in the life sciences sector.  Prior to joining ProNAi, Diane served as Vice President of Human Resources for Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.  Before joining Tekmira, she held the positions of Head of Human Resources for Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, Vice President of Human Resources for The Centre for Drug Research and Development, and Director of Human Resources for AnorMED Inc. Earlier in her career Diane held various Human Resources leadership roles, including Director, Human Resources for MDS Metro Laboratories. Diane holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University and is a member of the BC Human Resource Management Association as well as the BC HR Tech Group.

About ProNAi Therapeutics
ProNAi Therapeutics is a clinical-stage oncology company pioneering a novel class of therapeutics based on its proprietary DNAi technology platform for patients with cancer and hematological diseases. ProNAi's lead DNAi product candidate, PNT2258, is designed to treat cancers that overexpress BCL2, an important and validated oncogene known to be dysregulated in many types of cancer. ProNAi is pursuing a multi-faceted clinical development strategy designed to efficiently achieve regulatory approval and maximize the commercial opportunity of PNT2258. ProNAi recently initiated "Wolverine", a Phase 2 trial evaluating PNT2258 for the treatment of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. For more information, please visit www.pronai.com.

SOURCE ProNAi Therapeutics Inc.