VSTM — Verastem, Inc. ☆

Verastem, Inc., a development-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing drugs for the treatment of cancer in the United States. Its product candidates are Avutometinib, which is an orally administered, small molecule dual RAF/MEK inhibitor developed to block MEK kinase activity and the compensatory reactivation of MEK by upstream RAF, thereby targeting the RAS/MAPK signaling pathway that is commonly activated in various cancers; and Defactinib, an oral small molecule inhibitor of FAK and proline-rich tyrosine kinase for various solid tumors. The company is involved in clinical studies, including RAMP 301, a randomized global confirmatory trial to evaluate the combination of Avutometinib and Defactinib for the treatment of patients with recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer; RAMP 201, an adaptive two-part multicenter, parallel cohort, randomized open label trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Avutometinib and in combination with Defactinib; and FRAME, an investigation of Avutometinib and Defactinib in patients with KRAS mutant cancers and subsequent analyses; and RAMP 205. It has license agreements with Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. for the development, commercialization, and manufacture of products containing Avutometinib; and Pfizer Inc. to research, develop, manufacture, and commercialize products containing Pfizer's inhibitors of FAK for therapeutic, diagnostic, and prophylactic uses in humans. In addition, it has a clinical collaboration agreement with Amgen, Inc. to evaluate the combination of Avutometinib with Amgen's KRAS-G12C inhibitor LUMAKRAS, which in Phase 1/2 trial entitled RAMP 203; VS-7375, and VS-7375-101 is a discovery and development collaboration with GenFleet Therapeutics to advance new programs targeting RAS pathway-driven cancers; and AVMAPKI, FAKZYNJA, CO-PACK, is an avutometinib capsules, and defactinib tablets. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts.