Ra Pharmaceuticals today announced two senior management appointments, Dr. Jeffrey Johnston as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer and Mr. David Lubner as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Operations.

“2015 was a breakthrough year for Ra, which included the closing of our $59M Series B financing, expanding our investor syndicate with industry leading healthcare investors, as well as the initiation of the Phase 1 study of our synthetic peptide C5 inhibitor, RA101495,” said Doug Treco, PhD, Founder and CEO of Ra Pharmaceuticals. “We are excited to have Jeff and David join our team and build on the momentum created in 2015 as we transform Ra into a successful clinical-stage biotechnology company and move our pipeline programs forward in 2016.” RA101495 is being developed for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a rare hemolytic syndrome, as well as other complement-based disorders.

Dr. Johnston comes to Ra from Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA, where he held the positions of Senior Principal Clinical Scientist and Chief Medical Officer. While there he successfully led the worldwide development of Linaclotide from early development through approval and launch. Prior to Ironwood, Dr. Johnston served as Chief Development Officer and Vice President of Drug Development at Critical Therapeutics in Lexington, MA. He previously held roles at Triangle Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Johnston will be applying his extensive experience in drug development as Ra advances RA101495 through later stage clinical studies. Debasish F. Roychowdhury, MD, Ra’s acting Chief Medical Officer, will continue as an advisor to the Company.

David Lubner joins Ra from Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. As a member of the senior management team since the company’s inception, Mr. Lubner played a key leadership role in helping Tetraphase raise approximately $500 million in private and public financing, including their IPO in March 2013, as well as build a strong finance and operations team. Mr. Lubner will be applying his financing and operations experience to lead Ra's future financing strategy and corporate development. Prior to Tetraphase, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of PharMetrics Inc., Watertown, MA (acquired by IMS Health).

About Ra Pharmaceuticals
Ra Pharma combines novel insights into innate immunity with leadership in macrocycle technology to transform the lives of patients with life-threatening disorders. Our proprietary Extreme Diversity™ peptide chemistry platform delivers drugs with the diversity and specificity of antibodies, coupled with the pharmacological properties of small molecules. Our primary clinical focus is on diseases of complement dysregulation and orphan indications defined by validated biomarkers. For more information, please visit: www.rapharma.com.