Nutrition 21 Joins New Russell Microcap Index

PURCHASE, N.Y., July 6, 2006 – Nutrition 21, Inc., (NASDAQ: NXXI) announced today that it has been added to the Russell Microcap™ Index as of June 30, 2006 when Russell Investment Group reconstituted its family of U.S. Indexes.
     "We are pleased with the addition of Nutrition 21 to the Russell Microcap Index and believe the selection of the company represents recognition of the significant progress of our business strategy over the last 6 months," said Paul Intlekofer, president and CEO of Nutrition 21.  “Inclusion in this index will increase our visibility with investors and financial institutions that rely on the Russell indexes as part of their investment strategy."
     Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies.  An industry-leading $3.8 trillion in assets currently are benchmarked to them.  Investment managers who oversee these funds purchase shares of member stocks according to that company’s weighting in the particular index.
     Russell, a global leader in multi-manager investment services, provides investment products and services in 44 countries.  Russell manages more than $167 billion in assets and advises clients worldwide representing $2.4 trillion.  Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., with additional offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Auckland and Tokyo.

About Nutrition 21
Nutrition 21 is a nutritional bioscience company and the maker of chromium-based supplements with health benefits substantiated by clinical research.  The company markets Chromax® chromium picolinate, http://www.chromax.com/, which is the most-studied form of the essential mineral chromium.  Chromax is now available through food, drug and mass retailers nationwide.  Nutrition 21 also developed Diachrome®, http://www.diachrome.com/ , a proprietary adjunct nutritional therapy for people with type 2 diabetes. Nutrition 21 holds 36 patents for nutrition products and uses, 27 of which are for chromium compounds and their uses.  More information is available at http://www.nutrition21.com.

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