Verastem, Inc. announced that Hagop Youssoufian, MSc, MD, has been appointed Head of Hematology and Oncology Development. In this role, Dr. Youssoufian will oversee the clinical and regulatory development of the Company’s pipeline, including duvelisib, an investigational product candidate currently in development for hematologic malignancies, and provide overall strategic and tactical leadership to Verastem's hematology-oncology clinical programs. Dr. Youssoufian brings over 25 years of product development and commercialization experience to Verastem. In addition, Lori Kunkel, MD, and Edmund J. Pezalla, MD, MPH, have been appointed to the Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board (CSAB), and Michael Ferraresso will join the company as Vice President, Commercial Operations. Greg I. Berk, MD, will transition to the role of Senior Advisor from Chief Medical Officer and will join the CSAB. Prior to joining Verastem, Dr. Youssoufian served most recently as Chief Medical Officer at BIND Therapeutics. Prior to BIND, he was Executive Vice President at Progenics Pharmaceuticals and President, Research & Development and Chief Medical Officer at Ziopharm Oncology. Before joining Ziopharm, Dr. Youssoufian served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Clinical Sciences at Imclone Systems. Prior to Imclone, he served in leadership positions at Sanofi Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Prior to joining Verastem, Mr. Ferraresso served as Vice President, Commercial at Infinity Pharmaceuticals where he was instrumental in designing the commercial strategy for duvelisib and chaired the joint commercial committee for the partnership.
Verastem, Inc. is a late-stage development biopharmaceutical company. The Company's pipeline is focused on anticancer agents that inhibit critical signaling pathways in cancer that promote cancer cell survival and tumor growth, particularly rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma (RAF)/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) inhibition and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibition. The Companyâs advanced product candidates, avutometinib and defactinib, are being investigated in both preclinical and clinical studies for the treatment of various solid tumors, including low-grade serous ovarian cancer (LGSOC), non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer (CRC), and melanoma. Avutometinib is an orally available small molecule RAF/MEK clamp that inhibits the ras sarcoma (RAS)/RAF/MEK, ERK mitogen activated pathway kinase (MAPK) pathway. Defactinib is an oral small molecule inhibitor of FAK and proline-rich tyrosine kinase (PYK2).