Protagonist Therapeutics Reports Granting of Inducement Awards

NEWARK, Calif., April 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: PTGX) today reported that on April 18, 2022, it issued inducement awards to three recently hired employees in accordance with the terms of their employment offer letters. The awards were granted under the Protagonist Therapeutics Amended and Restated Inducement Plan, which was adopted May 29, 2018, and amended February 18, 2020 and February 15, 2022.

Asif Ali, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, received options to purchase 82,500 shares and restricted stock units (RSUs) to acquire 13,750 shares, respectively, of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock. Two additional new employees received, in the aggregate, options to purchase 75,000 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock.

The exercise price of the options is $19.19, which was the per-share closing price of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market on April 18, 2022. The shares subject to the option vest over a four-year period, with 25 percent of the shares subject to the option vesting on the first anniversary of the employees' date of hire and the remainder vesting in equal monthly installments over three years thereafter. One-fourth of the shares underlying the RSUs will vest annually over a four-year period. The awards were approved by the compensation committee of the Company's board of directors and were granted as a material inducement to entering into employment with the Company in accordance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5635(c)(4).

About Protagonist Therapeutics

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.

SOURCE Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.