CytRx - RNAi Therapeutics

In January 2007, CytRx contributed its RNA interference (RNAi) assets to RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (RXi), a subsidiary co-owned by CytRx and several world leaders in RNAi technology. RNAi has been shown to effectively interfere with the expression of targeted disease-associated genes with great specificity and potency. Subsequent to this contribution, CytRx owns approximately 85% of the outstanding stock of RXi, with the remainder owned by RXi's anticipated scientific advisory team.

RXi is a "pure play" RNAi company dedicated to developing proprietary RNAi therapeutics and, in addition to current industry leader Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, RXi will be one of the few companies focused exclusively on developing and commercializing products based on RNAi technology.

RXi's scientific advisory board includes four leading scientists who have played major roles in discovering and defining the RNAi field:

Craig C. Mello, Ph.D. received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of RNAi. He is the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. His RNAi findings were recognized as the 2002 "Breakthrough of the Year" by Science magazine.

Gregory J. Hannon, Ph.D. is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. His laboratory is credited with discovering the mechanism of RNAi in human cells (RISC/siRNA) as well as discovering short hairpin RNAi (shRNAi). Dr. Hannon is also a leading expert on oncogene pathways and was formerly an advisor to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

Tariq M. Rana, Ph.D., is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Founding Director of the Program in Chemical Biology at UMMS, and has previously advised a number of biotechnology companies including Sirna Therapeutics, where he served as a member of their Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Rana discovered key technology for the chemical stabilization of RNAi and has obtained RNAi activity in animals by local and systemic delivery.

Michael P. Czech, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Program in Molecular Medicine at UMMS. He has authored more than 250 papers in the field of insulin action, and was awarded the American Diabetes Association's Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement in 2000 as well as the ADA's Albert Renold Award in 2004. He has used RNAi to discover a number of genes involved in diabetes and obesity.

RXi intends to build on CytRx's RNAi therapeutics programs for the treatment of human diseases, initially focusing on neurodegenerative disease, oncology, type 2 diabetes and obesity. The contributed assets from CytRx consist primarily of several key licenses to early fundamental RNAi technologies from the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, as well as equipment and other tangible assets from CytRx's Worcester, Massachusetts laboratory. The licensed technologies include pending patents on RNAi target sequences, chemical modifications and delivery to cells, and field-specific licenses to a seminal patent application on chemical modification of RNAi filed in 1992 by UMMS and invented by Tariq M. Rana, and to the "Tuschl I" patent. The technologies also include exclusive licenses to patent applications that disclose gene targets for diabetes and obesity, including RIP140, which has been shown to be a master regulatory gene for metabolism in fat cells.

Tod Woolf, Ph.D. will serve as Chief Executive Officer of RXi. Dr. Woolf has 20 years of experience developing and commercializing innovative biomedical technologies, and is a recognized leader in RNA therapeutics. He previously worked at numerous biotechnology companies including Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals (now Sirna Therapeutics), where he co-developed a number of lead therapeutic RNA compounds and developed Genbloc(TM) RNA technology, which was spun out to create Atugen. He founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of Sequitur, an RNAi company acquired by Invitrogen in 2003. At Sequitur, Dr. Woolf co-invented and commercialized STEALTH RNAi, one of the most widely used second-generation RNAi research products. Also at Sequitur, he established collaborations with over a dozen major pharmaceutical companies. More recently, Dr. Woolf served as an advisor to Signet Laboratories prior to its acquisition by Covance, and has advised ProNai, Praecis Pharmaceuticals and Invitrogen. Dr. Woolf earned his Ph.D. in biology at Harvard University where he performed seminal work in the then-nascent field of RNA therapeutics. He has recently been serving as a consultant to CytRx in connection with the formation of RXi.

RXi has named Stephen J. DiPalma as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. DiPalma was co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst Oncology, Inc., a company providing cost-effective personalized medicine solutions to the oncology market, which was recently merged with a public diagnostics company. Prior to Catalyst, he served as Chief Financial Officer at Milkhaus Laboratory, a clinical stage drug development company, where he was instrumental in business development, strategic planning, finance and accounting, with a focus on capital strategies. He also served as Chief Financial Officer at Phytera, Inc., an international biopharmaceutical company. Among Mr. DiPalma�s past accomplishments, he served as Chief Financial Officer of publicly traded Aquila Biopharmaceuticals during that firm�s successful turnaround. Additionally, he co-founded and served as Chief Financial Officer of Athena Diagnostics, Inc., a premier specialty reference laboratory providing innovative tests for neurological disorders. Mr. DiPalma holds an M.B.A. from Babson College and a B.S. in business administration from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He is a member of the Financial Executives Institute, Financial Executives Networking Group, Association for Corporate Growth and the National Investor Relations Institute.