Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. Announces Board Changes
August 13, 2020 at 04:30 pm EDT
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Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. announced the appointment of Sarah O'Dowd as an independent director to the Protagonist Board of Directors. Ms. O'Dowd brings broad experience in management and corporate governance to Protagonist, including senior level oversight in the biopharmaceutical industry. In connection with the appointment, Chaitan Khosla, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Engineering at Stanford University, is stepping down from his position on the board. Sarah O'Dowd has been a director of Ichor Holdings since May 2020. Ms. O'Dowd previously served as Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary at the global technology firm Lam Research Corporation from October 2008 to March 2020. She also served as Lam Research's Vice President of Human Resources from 2009 to 2012. At Lam Research, Ms. O'Dowd led multiple initiatives relating to shareholder outreach on governance, ethics and compliance, IP strategy, foreign trade regulations and M&A transactions. Her experience includes the role of Vice President and General Counsel at FibroGen and a position on the board of directors of Corcept Therapeutics. Ms. O'Dowd currently serves on the board of directors of the non-profit organization, the Independent Institute, and previously served on the board of trustees of the non-profit organization, the Reason Foundation. Ms. O'Dowd began her career at the law firm Heller Ehrman, where she held responsibility for business strategy.
Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company. The Company uses its peptide-based chemical entities rusfertide and JNJ-2113 in different stages of development, all derived from its proprietary discovery technology platform. The Companyâs clinical programs fall into two categories of diseases: hematology and blood disorders, and inflammatory and immunomodulatory diseases. Its lead clinical asset, rusfertide (PTG-300), is an injectable hepcidin mimetic in development for the potential treatment of polycythemia vera (PV) and other blood disorders. The Companyâs Interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R) antagonist compound JNJ-2113 is an orally delivered investigational drug that is designed to block biological pathways targeted by marketed injectable antibody drugs. Its PN-943 is a wholly owned investigational orally delivered gut-restricted alpha 4 beta 7 (α4β7) specific integrin antagonist for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).