Dr. Yeilding joins Protagonist from Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, where he held leadership roles in the immunology therapeutic area, bringing extensive experience in R&D and commercialization of novel therapeutics in the I&I space
NEWARK, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 31, 2024 / Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) ("Protagonist" or "the Company") today announced the appointment of Newman Yeilding, M.D. to the role of Chief Scientific Advisor, effective August 1, 2024. Dr. Yeilding is an accomplished physician-scientist with deep knowledge and expertise in inflammatory, rheumatology, autoimmune and immunologic diseases. As Chief Science Advisor, he will provide discovery, pre-clinical and translational research and development leadership to maximize the impact of the Protagonist platform in areas where peptides have the ability to be best-in-class therapeutics.
"We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Yeilding to Protagonist as our full-time Chief Scientific Advisor," said Dinesh V. Patel, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Protagonist. "With extensive experience in research, development, and commercialization of novel therapeutics in the I&I space, Newman will be a great addition to the Protagonist R&D team as we expand our pipeline over the short- and long-term with drug candidates with blockbuster potential, including the oral peptide IL-17 antagonist program."
"I am delighted to be joining the Protagonist team," said Dr. Yeilding. "Peptide therapeutics have the ability to be significantly more effective than small molecule or antibody-based drugs for many serious and life-threatening diseases. I look forward to working with the Protagonist team to maximize the impact of the company's peptide technology platform and continue bringing meaningful therapeutic innovations out of the lab and into clinical practice and patient care."
Dr. Yeilding joins Protagonist following his 17-year career at Janssen, where he held a number of senior roles including Head of Immunology Development and R&D, Vice President of Immunology Dermatology, GI Development Senior Director, Vice President Immunology, and STELARA and Early Development Compound Development Team Leader. During his time at Janssen, he provided scientific and management leadership of immunology development initiatives in clinical departments including Rheumatology, Gastroenterology, Dermatology, and Pediatric Development. He led an R&D organization of approximately 250 members in close collaboration with the Immunology Global Strategic Commercial Organization to accelerate development, commercialization, and market access of innovative first-in-class or best-in-class compounds for the global Immunology market. Prior to Janssen, he was the Associate Director of Medical Affairs at Centocor and served as Chief of Hematology-Oncology at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center, after spending four years as a research track faculty with research focused on tumor angiogenesis. Dr. Yeilding earned his M.D. from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and a B.S. from Davidson University in North Carolina.
About Protagonist
Protagonist Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company with peptide-based new chemical entities (NCEs) rusfertide and JNJ-2113 (formerly PN-235) in advanced Phase 3 stages of clinical development, both derived from the Company's proprietary technology platform. Protagonist and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) scientists jointly discovered PN-235 as part of Protagonist's Interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R) antagonist collaboration with JNJ and followed it through IND-enabling pre-clinical and Phase 1 studies, with JNJ 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 for polycythemia vera (PV). The randomized portion of the Phase 2 REVIVE study has been successfully completed, and results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2024. The 1-year open-label extension (OLE) component of Phase 2 REVIVE is ongoing, followed by an additional 2-year long-term extension (LTE) THRIVE study. Enrollment has been completed in the global Phase 3 VERIFY study of rusfertide in polycythemia vera. Rusfertide is being co-developed and co-commercialized with Takeda pursuant to a worldwide collaboration and license agreement with Takeda announced in January 2024.
More information on Protagonist and its pipeline drug candidates and clinical studies can be found on the Company's website at www.protagonist-inc.com.
Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the potential benefits of JNJ-2113 and rusfertide, the timing of JNJ-2113 and rusfertide clinical trials, and timing of developments in our discovery programs. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "may," "will," "expect," or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those anticipated, including, but not limited to, our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates, our ability to earn milestone payments under our collaboration agreements with Janssen and Takeda, our ability to use and expand our programs to build a pipeline of product candidates, our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our product candidates, our ability to operate in a competitive industry and compete successfully against competitors that have greater resources than we do, and our ability to obtain and adequately protect intellectual property rights for our product candidates. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors affecting our business can be found in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in our most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which we operate, may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Any forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. We assume no obligation to update our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.
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SOURCE: Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.