Soligenix Appoints Rasappa Arumugham, PhD, as Vice President of Biopharmaceutical Development

Princeton, NJ – September 23, 2014 – Soligenix, Inc. (OTCQB: SNGX) (Soligenix or the Company), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing products that address unmet medical needs in the areas of inflammation, oncology and biodefense, announced today that it has appointed Rasappa Arumugham, PhD, as its Vice President of Biopharmaceutical Development.  Dr. Arumugham has over 25 years of diverse experience in biopharmaceutical research and development (R&D) in the areas of formulation research, analytical method development, quality control (QC), and manufacturing.  He  has a proven track record in development, scale-up, and technology transfer supporting commercialization of vaccines and biologics, including Prevnar®, TetramuneTM, HibTITER®, Meningitec® Conjugate and meningitis B (bivalent  rLP2086) Lipoprotein Subunit Vaccines.

Most recently, Dr. Arumugham served as the Head of Microbial Vaccines Analytics at Merck’s Manufacturing Division.  Prior to joining Merck, he worked at Praxis Biologics, Lederle, Wyeth, and Pfizer where he held positions of increasing responsibilities in the vaccines and biologics development functions.  At Pfizer, he served as the Senior Director, Analytical Biotherapeutics R&D for biologics including vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and antibody drug conjugates. Prior to that, Dr. Arumugham was the Senior Director, Global Vaccine Analytical and Formulation Development at Wyeth and led its vaccine analytical, drug product scale-up development and technology transfer functions.

Dr. Arumugham earned his PhD and MSc in Biochemistry and BSc in Chemistry from the University of Madras, India.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Arumugham to our team, as we leverage his extensive biopharmaceutical drug development expertise in leading our vaccines/biodefense and biotherapeutic programs,” stated Christopher J. Schaber, PhD, President and CEO of Soligenix.  “As we continue to execute our growth strategy, we are clearly building momentum and the talent we are attracting is an absolute reflection of our solid progress to date.  Dr. Arumugham’s experience will be instrumental to us as we advance our multiple late-stage development programs.”

About Soligenix, Inc.

Soligenix is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing products that address unmet medical needs in the areas of inflammation, oncology and biodefense. Soligenix is developing proprietary formulations of oral BDP (beclomethasone 17,21-dipropionate) for the prevention/treatment of gastrointestinal disorders characterized by severe inflammation, including pediatric Crohn’s disease (SGX203) and acute radiation enteritis (SGX201). Soligenix is also advancing its novel innate defense regulator (IDR) technology SGX942 for the treatment of oral mucositis and SGX301, its novel first-in-class photodynamic technology utilizing synthetic hypericin with safe visible light, for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

Through its BioDefense Division, Soligenix is developing countermeasures pursuant to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) Strategic Plan of 2011-2016 for inclusion in the US government’s Strategic National Stockpile. Soligenix’s biodefense products in development are a recombinant subunit vaccine called RiVax™, which is designed to protect against the lethal effects of exposure to ricin toxin and VeloThrax™, a vaccine against anthrax exposure.  RiVax™ has demonstrated statistically significant preclinical survival results in a lethal aerosol exposure non-human primate model, and has also been shown to be well tolerated and immunogenic in two Phase 1 clinical trials in healthy volunteers.  Both RiVax™ and VeloThrax™ are currently the subject of a $9.4 million National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grant supporting development of Soligenix’s new vaccine heat stabilization technology known as ThermoVax™.  Recently, Soligenix was awarded a NIAID contract valued up to $24.7 million to further advance the development of its heat stable RiVax™ as a medical countermeasure to prevent the effects of ricin exposure. Soligenix is also developing OrbeShield™ for the treatment of gastrointestinal acute radiation syndrome (GI ARS) under a BARDA contract award valued up to $26.3 million and a NIAID contract award valued up to $6.4 million.  OrbeShield™ has previously demonstrated statistically significant preclinical survival results in a canine model of GI ARS funded by the NIAID.  Additionally, Soligenix has an exclusive worldwide collaboration with Intrexon Corporation (NYSE: XON) focused on the joint development of a treatment for Melioidosis, a high priority biothreat and an area of unmet medical need.

For further information regarding Soligenix, Inc., please visit the Company’s Website at www.soligenix.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect Soligenix, Inc.’s current expectations about its future results, performance, prospects and opportunities, including but not limited to, potential market sizes, patient populations and clinical trial enrollment.  Statements that are not historical facts, such as “anticipates,” “estimates,” “believes,” “intends,” “potential,” or similar expressions, are forward-looking statements.  These statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results in future periods to differ materially from what is expressed in, or implied by, these statements.  Soligenix cannot assure you that it will be able to successfully develop, achieve regulatory approval for or commercialize products based on its technologies, particularly in light of the significant uncertainty inherent in developing vaccines against bioterror threats conducting preclinical and clinical trials of vaccines, obtaining regulatory approvals and manufacturing vaccines, that product development and commercialization efforts will not be reduced or discontinued due to difficulties or delays in clinical trials or due to lack of progress or positive results from research and development efforts, that it will be able to successfully obtain any further funding to support product development and commercialization efforts, including grants and awards, maintain its existing grants which are subject to performance requirements, enter into any biodefense procurement contracts with the US Government or other countries, that it will be able to compete with larger and better financed competitors in the biotechnology industry, that changes in health care practice, third party reimbursement limitations and Federal and/or state health care reform initiatives will not negatively affect its business, or that the US Congress may not pass any legislation that would provide additional funding for the Project BioShield program.  These and other risk factors are described from time to time in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, Soligenix’s reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K.  Unless required by law, Soligenix assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.