Nov. 6, 2009 (Business Wire) -- RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Nasdaq: RXII), a biopharmaceutical company pursuing the development and commercialization of proprietary therapeutics based on RNA interference (RNAi), today announced that Noah D. Beerman has joined the company as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. The appointment of Mr. Beerman as CEO is part of a planned succession in leadership as the company looks to advance from the research stage to product development and execution of therapeutic collaborations and partnerships. He succeeds RXi’s co-founder, Tod Woolf, Ph.D., who will continue as a member of RXi’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).

Mr. Beerman (47) joins RXi with over 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief Business Officer for Indevus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired by Endo Pharmaceuticals in March 2009 for $370 million plus future milestone payments. At Indevus, Mr. Beerman was responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s corporate development strategy to ensure near- and long-term growth and success. Noah was also responsible for overseeing Indevus’ acquisition of Valera Pharmaceuticals in 2007 and for managing the integration activities with Endo as part of this transaction.

Prior to joining Indevus in 1997, Mr. Beerman was Vice President responsible for health care at Technology Management and Funding (TMF), a venture firm where he developed and executed business and commercialization strategies for TMF’s biotechnology portfolio. Earlier in his career, he served in a variety of business and scientific capacities at Creative BioMolecules, Sandoz AG, and Repligen. Mr. Beerman holds an M.B.A. from Northeastern University's High Technology Program and a B.S. in molecular genetics from the University of Rochester.

“Noah brings to RXi an extensive biotechnology business background and broad scientific expertise. We are delighted to welcome Noah to the team and believe that his experience will help transform RXi from a research stage company into a development stage company. We are highly encouraged by the pre-clinical data generated by RXi and are optimistic that this will lead to accelerating our product development as well as our partnering activities. Given Noah’s successful track record in these areas, RXi should be well positioned to capitalize on these opportunities,” commented Sanford Hillsberg, RXi’s Chairman of the Board.

“We would like to thank Dr. Woolf, who has guided the strategic vision of RXi since early 2007, taking the company public in 2008 and bringing RXi from a concept to a leading RNAi therapeutics company.