RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp. (RXII) Signs Definitive Merger to Acquire Apthera Inc. for Late Stage-Clinical Development
RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp., a discovery-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development and commercialization of proprietary therapeutics on RNA interference, has announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement to acquire Apthera, Inc., a private biotechnology company that develops a pipeline of peptide-based immunotherapies for the adjuvant treatment of HER2-positive breast and other cancers. The acquisition will provide RXi with a late stage product candidate, NeuVax™, which is a peptide-based immunotherapy for low-to-intermediate HER2+ breast cancer, not eligible for Herceptin®, which has been expected to enter Phase III clinical trials by the first half of 2012. The company’s very first…