NEWARK, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 18, 2023 / Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:PTGX) today reported that on July 17, 2023, it issued inducement awards to Peter Morello, Ph.D. the Company's recently hired Vice President, Medical Communications and Publication Planning, in accordance with the terms of Dr. Morello's employment offer letter. 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.

Dr. Morello received options to purchase 40,000 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock. The exercise price of the options is $21.11, which was the per-share closing price of Protagonist Therapeutics common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market on July 17, 2023. 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 Dr. Morello'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 Dr. Morello's 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 rusfertide and JNJ-2113 (formerly PN-235) in advanced stages of clinical development, both derived from the Company's proprietary technology platform. Protagonist scientists jointly discovered PN-235 (now known as JNJ-2113) as part of Protagonist's 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 stage of development. The Phase 2 REVIVE study 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.

Protagonist is headquartered in Newark, California. For more information on Protagonist, please visit the Company's website at www.protagonist-inc.com.

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