Minerva Neurosciences, a developer of new therapies to treat neuropsychiatric diseases and disorders, has launched the new company web site (www.minervaneurosciences.com) following the successful transfer of the Minerva Neurosciences corporate headquarters from New Jersey to Cambridge, Mass. The establishment of a new corporate headquarters follows the recent appointment of Rogerio Vivaldi, M.D., MBA, as the new president and CEO, and Marc Beer as the new chairman of the board of directors of Minerva Neurosciences. The company was founded in 2013 by the merger of Cyrenaic Pharmaceuticals and Sonkei Pharmaceuticals.

Over the past 20 years, Vivaldi has been involved in commercializing more than 20 pharmaceutical products addressing a wide range of unmet medical needs. He most recently was senior vice president and head of the rare diseases business unit at Genzyme, and previously was head of Genzyme's renal and endocrinology unit. Prior to that he led the establishment of Genzyme's business operations in Brazil, and was president of Genzyme Latin America. He also owned a private medical practice specializing in diabetes and endocrinology care.

Beer has more than 25 years of product development and commercialization experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. After managing the commercial launch of several orphan disease products as vice president of global marketing at Genzyme, Beer went on to found ViaCell, which was acquired by PerkinElmer in 2007. Beer was CEO of Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, overseeing the FDA approval of the company's first product, JUXTAPID (lomitapide), in 2012.

Minerva Neurosciences also announced additional appointments. Remy Luthringer, Ph.D., was appointed executive vice president and head of R&D. Luthringer formerly was chief medical officer at Index Ventures and head of the FORENAP Institute for Research in Neurosciences and Neuropsychiatry in France. His previous research efforts contributed to the discovery of two of the compounds in the Minerva Neurosciences pipeline.

Geoff Race, FCMA, MBA, was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer. Previously, Race was CEO of Funxional Therapeutics and chief financial officer at PanGenetics. Joseph Reilly has been appointed chief business officer. Previously, Reilly was vice president, head of commercial strategy and operations at Genzyme.