Dr. Allen Davidoff reports

XORTX STRENGTHENS EXECUTIVE TEAM

XORTX Therapeutics Inc. has welcomed Dr. Michael Bumby, a biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry veteran, as its chief financial officer, replacing James Fairbairn, the company's current chief financial officer.

Dr. Michael Bumby, DVM, MBA, is currently a director and audit committee chair of Medipharm Labs following its successful acquisition of Vivo Cannabis Inc., where Dr. Bumby was chief financial officer for six years. Dr. Bumby brings over 20 years of finance and leadership experience in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry. He had a 14-year career at Eli Lilly, including roles in corporate finance and investment banking at Lilly's global headquarters in Indianapolis, leading international business development activities for early-stage and late-stage assets as well as working as a regional chief financial officer in Europe. He left Lilly to move back to Canada and began working as a public company chief financial officer, initially at Antibe Therapeutics, which he helped go public through an initial public offering in 2013, and more recently as the chief financial officer of Merus Labs, an international specialty pharmaceutical company, where he co-led that company's acquisition by Norgine BV in 2017 for $340-million. Dr. Bumby has experience with Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market listed companies and has led human resources, IT (information technology), legal and operations functions as well as acted as corporate secretary for a number of public companies.

Dr. Bumby holds a doctor of veterinary medicine from the University of Guelph, a Lean Six Sigma black belt and an MBA from the University of Toronto.

Anthony Giovinazzo, XORTX's chairman, stated: "We are delighted to welcome Michael as XORTX's CFO. His dual science-finance background and extensive business and drug development experience will help XORTX meet its near- and longer-term objectives."

Dr. Allen Davidoff, XORTX's chief executive officer, added: "On behalf of XORTX, I would like to express our gratitude to Jim Fairbairn for his excellence and professionalism in his role as CFO. We will miss Jim as a team member and friend. I look forward to working with Michael. His well rounded background in the biotech/pharma industry will be a valuable asset in the next stages of XORTX's development."

In connection with the appointment of Dr. Bumby, XORTX has granted, in accordance with the company's stock option plan, 13,000 options to purchase common shares of the company at an exercise price of $1.75 for a period of five years.

About XORTX Therapeutics Inc.

XORTX is a pharmaceutical company with two clinically advanced products in development: (1) the company's lead XRx-008 program for ADPKD (autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease); and (2) the company's secondary program in XRx-101 for acute kidney and other acute organ injury associated with coronavirus/COVID-19 infection. In addition, XRx-225 is a preclinical-stage program for Type 2 diabetic nephropathy. XORTX is working to advance its clinical-development-stage products that target aberrant purine metabolism and xanthine oxidase to decrease or inhibit production of uric acid. At XORTX, the company is dedicated to developing medications to improve the quality of life and health of kidney disease patients.