Ritter Pharmaceuticals Names Matthew W. Foehr to Its Board of Directors

Ritter Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held pharmaceutical company focused on gastrointestinal disorders, announces the appointment of Matthew W. Foehr to the Company’s Board of Directors. Mr. Foehr is President and Chief Operating Officer of Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LGND) and his appointment expands Ritter’s Board membership to five Directors.

“We are delighted to welcome a pharmaceutical executive of Matt’s caliber to our Board of Directors. He brings Ritter significant experience in many areas that are critical to our business success, including clinical, operations and commercial,” said Ira Ritter, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ritter Pharmaceuticals. “In the immediate future as we prepare for a Phase 2b clinical trial with RP-G28, we look forward to Matt’s contribution to advancing this first-ever treatment of lactose intolerance through the development pathway. He also will play an important role in strategic planning for this compound as well as for our company.”

Mr. Foehr has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having managed global operations and various research and development programs. He joined Ligand Pharmaceuticals in 2011 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and was promoted to President in 2015. At Ligand, he is responsible for the company’s portfolio of more than 100 fully funded partnerships with the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies across numerous technology types, therapeutic areas and drug targets. These therapies seek to address the unmet medical needs of patients for a broad spectrum of diseases including diabetes, hepatitis, muscle wasting, Alzheimer’s disease, dyslipidemia, anemia, asthma and osteoporosis.

Prior to Ligand, Mr. Foehr was Vice President and Head of Consumer Dermatology R&D, as well as Acting Chief Scientific Officer of Dermatology, in the Stiefel division of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). GSK acquired Stiefel Laboratories, Inc. in 2009 for $3.6 billion. At Stiefel, Mr. Foehr served as Senior Vice President of Global R&D Operations, Senior Vice President of Product Development & Support, and Vice President of Global Supply Chain Technical Services. Prior to Stiefel, Mr. Foehr held various executive roles at Connetics Corporation, including Senior Vice President of Technical Operations and Vice President of Manufacturing.

Mr. Foehr serves on the Board of Directors of Viking Therapeutics Inc. He is the author of multiple scientific publications and is named on numerous U.S. patents. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Santa Clara University.

About Ritter Pharmaceuticals

Ritter Pharmaceuticals, Inc. develops novel therapeutic products that modulate the human gut microbiome to treat inflammatory, gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases. Ritter is advancing human gut health research by exploring the metabolic capacity of gut microbiota and translating the functionality of these microbiome modulators into safe and effective applications. Ritter’s lead drug candidate, RP-G28, has the potential to become the first FDA-approved drug for lactose intolerance, a condition that affects more than one billion people worldwide.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements, which express the current beliefs and expectations of Ritter Pharmaceuticals’ management. Such statements involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause the company’s future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any statements contained herein that do not describe historical facts, including but not limited to, statements regarding Mr. Foehr’s expected contributions to Ritter’s Board of Directors are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.