Verastem Oncology Appoints Karin Tollefson, PhD, to Board of Directors
May 16 2023 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
Verastem Oncology (Nasdaq:VSTM), a biopharmaceutical company
committed to advancing new medicines for patients with cancer,
today announced the appointment of Karin Tollefson to its Board of
Directors, effective May 15, 2023. Dr. Tollefson is the Senior Vice
President and Head of Global Medical Affairs at Seagen Inc. where
she has led the medical organization through the successful
launches of three practice-changing medicines and established a
global medical affairs organization.
“Karin’s deep oncology and pharmaceutical experience and her
work bringing groundbreaking new medicines to patients will be
important as Verastem moves from late-stage development to
commercial preparation,” said Michael Kauffman, M.D., Ph.D., Lead
Director of the Verastem Oncology Board of Directors. “I am pleased
to welcome Dr. Tollefson to the Board of Directors and to work with
her to support the successful progress of Verastem’s avutometinib
development program in combinations across RAS pathway-driven
tumors.”
“I’m looking forward to bringing my medical affairs and program
development expertise to the significant progress at Verastem to
address difficult-to-treat RAS pathway-driven tumors as a member of
the Board of Directors,” said Dr. Tollefson. “My recent launch
experiences and insights in addressing the needs of patients and
the healthcare community will be timely as the company works toward
potential availability of a treatment for recurrent low-grade
serous ovarian cancer, an area of significant unmet need.”
Karin Tollefson has 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical
industry and is a proven leader in global oncology development and
medical affairs. Dr. Tollefson spent much of her early career at
Eli Lilly and Company serving in progressive leadership roles in
clinical operations, clinical development, portfolio & program
management, and global medical affairs. She supported Lilly’s
acquisition and integration of ImClone Systems in 2008 and was part
of the Oncology Business Unit Leadership team until her retirement
in 2017. During her career, she has been involved in the launch of
eight new medicines and numerous additional indications in the U.S.
and international markets, serving patients in over 10 tumor and
therapeutic areas. Dr. Tollefson has served on the philanthropic
boards of the American Lung Association and the Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society Indiana Board of Trustees. She started her
undergraduate studies at Kansas State University and earned her
Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Kansas.
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 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, Verastem Oncology 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) 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 its financial condition, its potential
borrowings, the potential clinical value of various of its clinical
trials, the timing of commencing and completing trials, including
topline data reports and interactions with regulators. 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 trial design, labeling and
other matters that could affect the timing, 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, including as a result of conducting
additional studies; 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 will achieve the milestones
that result in payments to us under our asset purchase agreement
with Secura; 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 Verastem Oncology’s Annual Report on Form
10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 as filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 14, 2023 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 Verastem Oncology 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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Investors: Dan Calkins +1 781-469-1694
dcalkins@verastem.com
Nate LiaBraaten +1 212-600-1902 nate@argotpartners.com
Media: Lisa Buffington +1 781-292-4205
lbuffington@verastem.com
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