Healthcare Industry News: Protagonist Therapeutics
News Release - July 8, 2016
William D. Waddill, Calithera CFO, Elected to Protagonist Therapeutics Board
MILPITAS, Calif., July 8, 2016 -- (Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network) -- Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. today announced the election of William D. Waddill, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Calithera Biosciences, to the Protagonist Board of Directors."We are very pleased to welcome Will Waddill to the Board of Directors of Protagonist," said Chief Executive Officer Dinesh Patel. "We look forward to benefiting from Will's financial leadership and experience within the biotechnology sector as Protagonist continues to grow as an organization."
Mr. Waddill began his career in corporate finance, banking and public accounting 30 years ago. Prior to joining Calithera, he was SVP and CFO at OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, where he led a successful IPO and private equity financing, as well as three significant collaborations. Prior to that, he was SVP and CFO at Ilypsa, where he was finance lead for Ilypsa's acquisition by Amgen. Before joining Ilypsa, Mr. Waddill served as the founder and principal at Square One Finance, where he managed the finances of 33 start-up biotechnology companies, including eight that became public and six that were acquired. He holds a B.S. in accounting from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and certification as a public accountant (inactive), having begun his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte in Boston.
About Protagonist Therapeutics
Protagonist Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a proprietary technology platform focused on discovering and developing peptide-based new chemical entities to address significant unmet medical needs. Its primary focus is on developing first-in-class oral peptide drugs that specifically target biological pathways also targeted by currently marketed injectable antibody drugs. Compared to injectable antibody drugs, Protagonist's oral peptides offer targeted delivery to the gastrointestinal (GI) tissue compartment, potential for improved safety due to minimal exposure in the blood, improved convenience and compliance due to oral delivery, lower cost, and an opportunity for earlier introduction of targeted therapy for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Protagonist's initial lead product candidates, PTG-100 and PTG-200, are based on this approach, and the company believes they have the potential to transform the existing treatment paradigm for IBD, a GI disease consisting primarily of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
PTG-100, a potential first-in-class oral alpha-4-beta-7 integrin specific antagonist peptide product candidate that is being developed initially for moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, has now completed a phase 1 clinical trial in normal healthy volunteers. PTG-200, a potential first-in-class oral Interleukin-23 receptor antagonist that is being developed initially for moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease, is currently in IND-enabling studies. In addition to PTG-100 and PTG-200, the company has several other assets in different stages of research and pre-clinical development.
Protagonist is headquartered in Milpitas, California 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.
Source: Protagonist Therapeutics
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