Verastem Oncology (Nasdaq:VSTM), a
biopharmaceutical company committed to advancing new medicines for
patients with cancer, today announced the appointment of Robert
Gagnon to its Board of Directors, effective December 13, 2022. Mr.
Gagnon is the Chief Financial Officer and Operating Partner at
Gurnet Point Capital, a healthcare venture capital and private
equity fund and the former Chief Business Officer and Chief
Financial Officer at Verastem Oncology.
“Rob’s expertise in all areas of biopharmaceutical finance,
including his ability to navigate complex business challenges,
combined with his deep understanding of Verastem’s goals and
operations, will be invaluable to Verastem’s work,” said Michael
Kauffman, M.D., Ph.D., Lead Director of the Verastem Oncology Board
of Directors. “Having worked with Rob over the past several years,
I am pleased to welcome him to the Board of Directors and look
forward to the input and guidance he will bring to the team.”
“I am committed to Verastem’s mission to deliver a new solution
to patients with low-grade serous ovarian cancer and advancing the
development program across RAS-driven tumors, all areas of high
unmet medical need,” said Mr. Gagnon. “I am excited to contribute
to Verastem in this new capacity by joining the distinguished and
dedicated Board of Directors and contribute to Verastem’s continued
progress.”
Mr. Gagnon has more than 20 years of financial and commercial
experience in heading global finance operations. Prior to his
positions at Gurnet Point Capital and Verastem Oncology, he was
Chief Financial Officer at Harvard Bioscience, Inc., a global
developer, manufacturer, and marketer of a broad range of tools to
advance life science research and regenerative medicine. Prior to
this, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial
Officer, and Treasurer at Clean Harbors, Inc. as well as Chief
Accounting Officer and Controller at Biogen Idec, Inc. Earlier, he
worked in a variety of senior positions at Deloitte & Touche,
LLP, and Price Waterhouse Coopers, LLP. He holds an MBA from the
MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts degree in
accounting from Bentley College.
About Avutometinib (VS-6766)
Avutometinib is a RAF/MEK clamp that induces inactive complexes
of MEK with ARAF, BRAF and CRAF potentially creating a more
complete and durable anti-tumor response through maximal RAS
pathway inhibition. Avutometinib is currently in late-stage
development.
In contrast to other MEK inhibitors, avutometinib blocks both
MEK kinase activity and the ability of RAF to phosphorylate MEK.
This unique mechanism allows avutometinib to block MEK signaling
without the compensatory activation of MEK that appears to limit
the efficacy of other inhibitors. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for the
combination of Verastem Oncology’s investigational RAF/MEK clamp
avutometinib, with defactinib, its FAK inhibitor, for the treatment
of all patients with recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer
(LGSOC) regardless of KRAS status after one or more prior lines of
therapy, including platinum-based chemotherapy.
Verastem Oncology is currently conducting clinical trials with
its RAF/MEK clamp avutometinib in RAS-driven tumors as part of its
(Raf And Mek Program). RAMP 201 is a
registration-directed trial of avutometinib alone and in
combination with defactinib in patients with recurrent LGSOC.
Verastem Oncology has established clinical collaborations with
Amgen and Mirati to evaluate LUMAKRAS™ (sotorasib) and KRAZATI™
(adagrasib) in combination with avutometinib in KRAS G12C mutant
NSCLC as part of the RAMP 203 and RAMP 204 trials, respectively. As
part of the “Therapeutic Accelerator Award” Verastem Oncology
received from PanCAN, the Company is conducting RAMP 205, a Phase
1b/2 clinical trial evaluating avutometinib and defactinib with
gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel in patients with front-line metastatic
pancreatic cancer.
About Verastem Oncology
Verastem Oncology (Nasdaq: VSTM) (Verastem, Inc.) is a
development-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to the
development and commercialization of new medicines to improve the
lives of patients diagnosed with cancer. Our pipeline is focused on
novel small molecule drugs that inhibit critical signaling pathways
in cancer that promote cancer cell survival and tumor growth,
including RAF/MEK inhibition and focal adhesion kinase (FAK)
inhibition. For more information, please visit
www.verastem.com.
Forward-Looking Statements Notice
This press release includes forward-looking statements about
Verastem Oncology’s strategy, future plans and prospects, including
statements related to the potential clinical value of various of
its clinical trials, the timing of trials and potential for
additional development programs involving Verastem Oncology’s lead
compound. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect,"
"intend," "may," "plan," "predict," "project," "target,"
"potential," "will," "would," "could," "should," "continue," “can,”
“promising” and similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking
statements contain these identifying words. Each forward-looking
statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied
in such statement.
Applicable risks and uncertainties include the risks and
uncertainties, among other things, regarding: the success in the
development and potential commercialization of our product
candidates, including avutometinib in combination with other
compounds, including defactinib, LUMAKRAS™ and others; the
occurrence of adverse safety events and/or unexpected concerns that
may arise from additional data or analysis or result in
unmanageable safety profiles as compared to their levels of
efficacy; our ability to obtain, maintain and enforce patent and
other intellectual property protection for our product candidates;
the scope, timing, and outcome of any legal proceedings; decisions
by regulatory authorities regarding labeling and other matters that
could affect the availability or commercial potential of our
product candidates; whether preclinical testing of our product
candidates and preliminary or interim data from clinical trials
will be predictive of the results or success of ongoing or later
clinical trials; that the timing, scope and rate of reimbursement
for our product candidates is uncertain; that third-party payors
(including government agencies) may not reimburse; that there may
be competitive developments affecting our product candidates; that
data may not be available when expected; that enrollment of
clinical trials may take longer than expected; that our product
candidates will experience manufacturing or supply interruptions or
failures; that we will be unable to successfully initiate or
complete the clinical development and eventual commercialization of
our product candidates; that the development and commercialization
of our product candidates will take longer or cost more than
planned; that we or Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. will fail to
fully perform under the avutometinib license agreement; that we or
our other collaboration partners may fail to perform under our
collaboration agreements; that we may not have sufficient cash to
fund our contemplated operations; that we may be unable to obtain
adequate financing in the future through product licensing,
co-promotional arrangements, public or private equity, debt
financing or otherwise; that Secura Bio, Inc. will achieve the
milestones that result in payments to us under our asset purchase
agreement with Secura Bio, Inc.; that we will be unable to execute
on our partnering strategies for avutometinib in combination with
other compounds; that we will not pursue or submit regulatory
filings for our product candidates; and that our product candidates
will not receive regulatory approval, become commercially
successful products, or result in new treatment options being
offered to patients.
Other risks and uncertainties include those identified under the
heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2021 as filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 28, 2022 and in any
subsequent filings with the SEC. The forward-looking statements
contained in this press release reflect Verastem Oncology’s views
as of the date hereof, and the Company does not assume and
specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking
statements whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise, except as required by law.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221215006059/en/
Investors:
Dan Calkins Investor Relations +1 781-469-1694
dcalkins@verastem.com
Nate LiaBraaten +1 212-600-1902 nate@argotpartners.com
Media:
Lisa Buffington Corporate Communications +1 781-292-4205
lbuffington@verastem.com
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