Prothena Announces Appointment of Sarah Noonberg, MD, PhD as Chief Medical Officer

DUBLIN, Ireland, May 16, 2017 -- Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA), a late-stage clinical biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel protein immunotherapies, announced today the appointment of Sarah Noonberg, MD, PhD, as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Noonberg will have key responsibilities to define and advance Prothena’s product pipeline and for leadership of Prothena’s clinical and medical organizations. She succeeds Martin Koller, MD, whose planned retirement from Prothena at the end of 2017 was previously announced.

"Sarah is a talented and experienced physician-scientist with a successful track record of developing novel products across multiple therapeutic categories,” stated Gene Kinney, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Prothena. “As we continue to advance our pipeline of innovative immunotherapies, Sarah’s capability in translating science into new medicines, experience leading large organizations across several areas of drug development and deep commitment to serving patients will further strengthen our management team. We also want to thank Marty, whose leadership has been instrumental to our success, and wish him the best in retirement.”

Dr. Noonberg joins Prothena after serving as Group Vice President and Head of Global Clinical Development at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals where she was responsible for development strategy and execution across a diverse clinical portfolio. Before BioMarin, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Medivation, Inc., where as Senior Vice President of Early Development and Vice President of Clinical Development she led programs across all phases of development, including enzalutamide for the treatment of chemotherapy-naïve metastatic prostate cancer. She also held several positions of increasing seniority at Chiron Corporation, where she led the clinical development of compounds in infectious disease and pulmonary indications. Dr. Noonberg earned her MD at the University of California, San Francisco, her PhD in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and her BS at Dartmouth College. Dr. Noonberg is a board-certified internist and completed her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. For the past 14 years, she has been an active part-time hospitalist, working as an attending physician treating a broad range of inpatient and critical care patients.

About Prothena

Prothena Corporation plc is a global, late-stage clinical biotechnology company establishing fully-integrated research, development and commercial capabilities. Fueled by its deep scientific understanding built over decades of research in protein misfolding and cell adhesion — the root causes of many serious or currently untreatable amyloid and inflammatory diseases — Prothena seeks to fundamentally change the course of progressive diseases associated with this biology. The Company’s pipeline of antibody therapeutic candidates targets a number of indications including AL amyloidosis (NEOD001), Parkinson’s disease and other related synucleinopathies (PRX002/RG7935), inflammatory diseases, including psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PRX003), and ATTR amyloidosis (PRX004). The Company continues discovery of additional novel therapeutic candidates where its deep scientific understanding of disease pathology can be leveraged. For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.prothena.com

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