With our groundbreaking peptide technology platform, Protagonist is bringing forward novel peptide therapeutics in late-stage clinical development with the potential to radically improve the treatment of both rare and prevalent diseases. We address a diverse set of biological targets and pathways for which classical small molecule or biologics approaches are less effective or less preferable to physicians and patients.
Our pipeline includes rusfertide, a peptide mimetic of the natural hormone hepcidin, which is currently being investigated in the phase 3 clinical study VERIFY for polycythemia vera, a rare disease characterized by excessive red blood cell production. We are also advancing PN-235, an oral peptide IL-23 receptor antagonist partnered with Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.
Led by Dinesh Patel, President and CEO, the Protagonist executive leadership team leverages decades of experience and expertise in drug discovery, clinical development, and commercialization to serve patients most in need.
The board of directors serves as a valuable and effective leadership arm. Working closely with the Protagonist executive leadership team, the board offers insight and support to the Protagonist scientific and business strategy.
We are a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company. We make amazing scientific discoveries and then turn those scientific breakthroughs into life-changing medicine for people who need them most.
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Spotlight, Arturo Molina, MD, Chief Medical Officer
At Protagonist, we work hard to meet the needs of the patient communities who are relying on us to innovate new and better medicines. Part of our commitment to them includes working to advance our medicines through clinical studies as quickly as possible and ensuring patients can access investigational therapies outside of our clinical trials, which has allowed some patients in critical need to access our therapies for several additional years after trials conclude.
Protagonist actively works to ensure we have strong patient representation in our clinical studies. We actively seek patients from across urban, suburban, and rural locations, from varying age groups and from among diverse backgrounds to ensure equitable patient representation in our study data.
We’re particularly concerned aging populations are left out of clinical studies, and we’re currently working to recruit older patients into our trials.
Spotlight: Carena Spivey, Head of HR
We view our diverse and welcoming corporate culture as being critical to our long-term success – It’s essential to the way we innovate. And we regularly track and report our progress, because we believe that what doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done.
Today:
- 65% of employees are members of underrepresented ethnic communities
- 51% are women
- nearly 50% of our Board identifies as a member of an underserved community or as female
We create the conditions for our employees to thrive, facilitating their learning and growth through a richly supportive workplace setting.
Part of that is creating a speak-up culture; we have cultivated an environment where every voice is heard, and we encourage the expression of different points of view in decision-making processes. At every turn, we encourage deep listening, thoughtful consideration, and open-mindedness that allows for decisions to be changed or refined in step with new data. By embracing our team members’ differences, we create wins for our organization and for patients.