Rectify Pharmaceuticals Appoints Robert Hughes as Executive Vice President, Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development, and Xiaobing Li as Chief Development Officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rectify Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (“Rectify”) a biotechnology company developing small molecule disease-modifying therapeutics that restore and enhance ABC transporter function, continues to grow its senior leadership team. Robert Hughes, Ph.D., recently joined as Executive Vice President of Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development and Xiaobing Li, Ph.D., joins as Chief Development Officer.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome Rob and Xiaobing to our team at Rectify, broadening the depth of our management team,” said Rajesh Devraj, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. “Rob has deep expertise in the operational and strategic oversight of drug discovery and preclinical development, having contributed to the delivery of a dozen development molecules across multiple disease areas at both pharmaceutical and small biotech companies. Xiaobing brings a wealth of experience in portfolio management and cross-functional program team leadership from discovery stages to NDA submission. As Chief Development Officer, she will play a key role in driving the advancement of our Positive Functional Modulators (PFMs) from discovery through clinical development. Their expertise will be essential as we continue to advance our pipeline to restore and enhance ABC transporter function.”

Previously, Dr. Hughes served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Atlas Venture and Vice President, Head of Molecular Discovery at Disarm Therapeutics. At Disarm, Dr. Hughes was a key member of the team that delivered two development candidates before being acquired by Eli Lilly in 2020. Prior to this, Dr. Hughes held positions at Boehringer-Ingelheim and Pfizer working across multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiometabolism, neurodegeneration, and immunology, and various target classes advancing programs from conception to the clinic. Over the course of his career, Dr. Hughes contributed to the delivery of 12 development candidate molecules across multiple target classes.

Dr. Li brings deep experience driving multiple programs from discovery through investigational new drug (IND) application, and onwards to clinical regulatory submissions and market registration. Most recently, she served as Chief Portfolio Officer at Clover Pharmaceuticals, leading research and development (R&D) strategy. Previously, she was Vice President, Head of Program Leadership and Portfolio Management at Voyager Therapeutics. Prior to this, Dr. Li was a Senior Director, Global Program Leader for Zulresso® at Sage Therapeutics. Trained as a medicinal chemist, Dr. Li spent fourteen years at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies followed by working at Alkermes and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in various leadership positions with a focus on R&D program execution and delivery of products.

About Rectify Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Rectify”)

Rectify is developing Positive Functional Modulators (PFMs) – disease-modifying therapies that restore and enhance ABC transporter function to address the underlying cause of serious ABC transporter mediated diseases. Rectify is the first company to directly address the untapped therapeutic potential of the ABC transporter target class.

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are a 48-member superfamily of membrane-bound proteins that actively export a diverse range of substrates (e.g., lipids, ions, peptides, and salts) across lipid membranes. Rectify has built a breakthrough ABC transporter product platform that is enabling efficient and rapid discovery of first-in-class small molecule therapies that restore and enhance ABC transporter function for rare and common liver, biliary, eye and CNS diseases.

Rectify was founded, seeded, and launched by Atlas Venture, who led the $100M Series A round with a world-class syndicate including Omega Funds, Forbion Capital Partners, and Longwood Fund. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

For more information, please visit www.rectifypharma.com.

Sarah Sutton/Michael Barron
Argot Partners
212-600-1902
rectify@argotpartners.com