Inspire Elects George Abercrombie to Board of Directors

Record Date: 9/8/2010
Company: Inspire Pharmaceuticals

DURHAM, N.C., Mar 01, 2010 -- Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISPH) announced today the election of George B. Abercrombie to its Board of Directors, effective March 1, 2010.Mr. Abercrombie will also serve as a member of the Audit Committee of the Board.

Mr. Abercrombie, age 55, most recently served as the President and CEO of Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. ("Roche") and Head of North American Pharmaceutical Operations from 2001 through December 2009. During this time, he led the North American Pharmaceutical Operations for the Roche Group in the U.S.and Canada. Under his leadership, Roche achieved leading market share positions for key marketed products, strengthening the value of Roche's U.S.business. Prior to Roche, Mr. Abercrombie served as Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations at Glaxo Wellcome Inc. ("Glaxo") from 1997 to 2001. In this role, Mr. Abercrombie was responsible for all commercial operations in the U.S., including pharmaceutical sales and marketing, managed care, business planning and development and late-state clinical drug studies for the entire U.S.portfolio. Mr. Abercrombie held positions as Vice President and General Manager, Business Operations, and Vice President and General Manager of the Glaxo Pharmaceuticals Division from 1993 through 1997. Prior to Glaxo, Mr. Abercrombie spent ten years at Merck & Co., Inc. ("Merck"), where he held a broad range of positions in sales, marketing, executive sales management and business development. During his career, Mr. Abercrombie has been involved with various industry associations such as the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy Foundation, the Duke University Fuqua School of Business Health Sector Advisory Board, the Board of Directors for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America ("PhRMA") and the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.Mr. Abercrombie is a member of the Board of Directors of Project HOPE, an organization dedicated to achieving sustainable advances in health care around the world.Mr. Abercrombie holds a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Kenneth B. Lee, Jr., Inspire's Chairman, stated, "We are pleased that George has joined the Inspire Board. He has had a distinguished career at Merck, Glaxo and Hoffmann-La Roche, from where he recently retired. While George's management experience is diverse, he has headed many commercial activities during his career, and we are delighted to regain the commercial perspective we had when Bill Ringo was on our Board. George will bring extremely valuable experience to Inspire as we grow both our commercial and R&D activities."

Mr. Abercrombie will serve the remainder of a three-year term expiring at Inspire's 2010 annual meeting of stockholders and is expected to be nominated for re-election at the 2010 annual meeting.