Protagonist Therapeutics Names Thomas P. O'Neil Chief Financial Officer

MILPITAS, Calif., Feb. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage company developing novel, orally-stable peptide therapeutics for gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, today announced the appointment of Thomas P. O'Neil as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. O'Neil was previously the CFO of publicly traded agricultural biotechnology firm, Arcadia Biosciences.

"Tom O'Neil joins Protagonist with more than 20 years of finance and operations experience at both private and public companies in the United States and globally," said Dinesh Patel, Chief Executive Officer. "He has a strong track record of driving growth at life science companies, and has led numerous successful financing initiatives including IPOs, as well as mergers and acquisitions. We are very pleased to welcome him to the Protagonist executive team at this stage in our company's growth and evolution."

"Protagonist is an innovative development-stage company with an experienced management team, a strong investor base, and a growing pipeline of novel, oral peptide drug candidates," said Mr. O'Neil. "I look forward to working with Dinesh and his team to help Protagonist achieve success in the development and eventual commercialization of novel targeted therapeutics in gastrointestinal and other diseases."

Prior to joining Arcadia, Mr. O'Neil was the CFO of Sorbent Therapeutics, Inc. He has held executive-level positions with ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded Australian-U.S. company, and biotechnology firms Nodality and HX Diagnostics, as well as finance roles with Monogram Biosciences, Inc., a publicly traded U.S. company. Mr. O'Neil's experience includes initial public offerings, oversight and management of equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, collaborations, and investor relations. He has an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management, and a B.A. from Pomona College.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics is a U.S.-incorporated clinical development stage biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of orally stable peptides as targeted therapies initially for inflammatory bowel disease (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 for protein-protein interaction (PPI) targets that have been approached largely by injectable antibodies. Oral peptides may lead to a preferred choice for patients, physicians, and payers by virtue of their better convenience and potentially enhanced safety and efficacy in comparison to other therapeutic options. Protagonist's internally discovered asset PTG-100, an oral alfa-4-beta-7 antagonist peptide, is currently in phase 1 clinical studies. In addition to PTG-100, the Company has several other assets in different stages of research and pre-clinical development.

Protagonist is headquartered in Milpitas, California USA with its pre-clinical and clinical staff 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.