WORCESTER, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE) -  RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (OTCBB: RXII.OB) today announced that Robert Bitterman and Keith Brownlie have been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors. Mr. Bitterman and Mr. Brownlie both bring extensive industry experience that will be instrumental to supporting RXi’s growth and development initiatives. 

Mr. Bitterman brings over 18 years of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biologic life science industry to RXi.  Mr. Bitterman currently serves as the President & CEO of Cutanea Life Sciences, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Maruho Company, LTD, a specialty pharma company focused on diseased and aging skin.  Prior to Cutanea, he served as President and CEO for Isolagen, Inc., an international public, bioscience technology company whose primary proprietary platform used human fibroblasts for soft tissue enhancement. For 10 years, Mr. Bitterman served as the President and GM of Aventis’ Dermik Laboratories, a global strategic business unit focused on therapeutic and aesthetic dermatology development and commercialization.  “We are honored to have Robert join our Board of Directors, said Dr. Geert Cauwenbergh, President and CEO of RXi Pharmaceuticals. He added that “His broad experience in the field of dermatology will be a valuable resource to RXi as we progress our first candidate into the clinic”. 

Mr. Brownlie comes to RXi after a distinguished career with Ernst & Young that spanned 36 years. During his tenure, he rapidly became one of the leading accounting specialists for life sciences companies of the greater New York area. For the last 20 years at Ernst & Young, he has held the position of Metro New York Area Life Sciences Industry Leader. Mr. Brownlie has extensive experience with SEC registration statements, initial public offerings and recurrent reporting. In his accounting career he has been involved in over 100 public offerings. Until 2010, when he retired from Ernst & Young, he was a member of Ernst & Young’s National Life Sciences Committee, and he is a member of the American Institute of CPAs. Mr. Brownlie is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Epicept and Soligenix, where in both companies he also is chairman of the Audit Committee. “It is privilege for us at RXi to have someone of the caliber of Keith join RXi’s Board of Directors”, said Dr. Cauwenbergh. He added that “Keith joins us at a time that we expect to see RXi transform form a pure research platform company into a biotechnology product development company.  His expertise will be beneficial in supporting and expediting this transition.”

About RXi Pharmaceuticals

RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (OTCBB: RXII.OB) is a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapies based on its proprietary, next-generation RNAi platform.  Therapeutics that use RNA interference, or “RNAi,” have great promise because of their ability to “silence,” or down-regulate, the expression of a specific gene that may be overexpressed in a disease condition.  Building on the pioneering work of scientific founder and Nobel Laureate Dr. Craig Mello, RXi’s first RNAi product candidate, RXI-109, which targets CTGF (connective tissue growth factor), is scheduled to commence human clinical trials for scar prevention in 2012.  For more information, please visit www.rxipharma.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about future expectations, plan and future development of RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation’s products and technologies.  These forward-looking statements about future expectations, plans and prospects of the development of RXi’s products and technologies involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risk that RXi may not be able to successfully develop its candidates, the risk that the development of our RNAi-based therapeutics may be delayed or may not proceed as planned and we may not be able to complete development of any RNAi-based product, the risk that the development process for our product candidates may be delayed, risks related to development and commercialization of products by our competitors, risks related to our ability to control the timing and terms of collaborations with third parties and the possibility that other companies or organizations may assert patent rights that prevent us from developing our products.  Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements.  RXi does not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release.

Contacts:

Tamara McGrillen

508 929-3646

tmcgrillen@rxipharma.com

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