Protagonist Therapeutics Appoints Accomplished Hematologist-Oncologist, Arturo Molina, MD, MS, FACP, as Chief Medical Officer

Chartwell Partners is honored to have worked with Protagonist Therapeutics to recruit Arturo Molina, MD, MS, FACP, as Chief Medical Officer. Arturo will be instrumental in guiding the Company’s lead asset, rusfertide, through its global Phase 3 trials, potential regulatory submissions and commercialization. Rusfertide, a mimetic of the natural hormone hepcidin, could transform the treatment paradigm for patients with polycythemia vera, a rare chronic blood disorder that affects approximately 160,000 patients in the U.S. Rusfertide is also being evaluated for various other disorders associated with iron overload and/or erythrocytosis.

Dr. Molina joins Protagonist from Sutro Biopharma, where he was Chief Medical Officer since 2016. Prior to Sutro, Dr. Molina was Vice President, Oncology Scientific Innovation at Johnson & Johnson. Earlier in his career, Dr. Molina was Chief Medical Officer at Cougar Biotechnology, acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2009. From 1991 to 2002, Dr. Molina was a faculty staff physician in the Department of Hematology/Bone Marrow Transplantation and Department of Medical Oncology/Therapeutics Research at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and Adjunct Professor from 2002 to 2004. Dr. Molina earned his MD and MS in physiology degrees from Stanford University Medical Center, and a BA in psychology and BS in zoology from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Molina maintains an Adjunct Clinical Faculty appointment in the Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine.