NEWARK, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 16, 2023 / Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:PTGX) today reported that on November 15, 2023, it issued inducement awards to two 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.

The new employees received, in the aggregate, options to purchase 50,000 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock. The exercise price of the options is $16.29, which was the per-share closing price of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market on November 15, 2023. The shares subject to each option vest over a four-year period, with 25 percent of the shares subject to the option 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 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 peptide-based new chemical entities (NCEs) rusfertide and JNJ-2113 (formerly PN-235) in advanced stages of clinical development, both derived from the Company's proprietary technology platform. Protagonist and Janssen scientists jointly discovered PN-235 (now known as JNJ-2113) as part of Protagonist's Interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R) collaboration with Janssen and followed it through IND-enabling pre-clinical and Phase 1 studies, with Janssen assuming responsibility for further clinical development. Rusfertide, a mimetic of the natural hormone hepcidin, is the Company's lead drug candidate currently in a global Phase 3 development program. The randomized portion of the Phase 2 REVIVE study was unblinded, showing positive results and is now complete, with an open-label extension underway. The global Phase 3 VERIFY study of rusfertide in polycythemia vera is ongoing. Protagonist retains all worldwide development and commercialization rights to rusfertide. More information on Protagonist, its pipeline drug candidates and clinical studies can be found on the Company's website at www.protagonist-inc.com.

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SOURCE: Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.