science

Verastem Oncology

Verastem Oncology is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Verastem Oncology rather than just read about it. In short: Verastem, Inc., doing business as Verastem Oncology, is an American pharmaceutical company that develops medicines to treat certain cancers. Headquartered and founded in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm is a member of NASDAQ Biotechnology Index.

Key takeaways

Verastem Oncology belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Verastem Oncology to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Verastem Oncology from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Verastem, Inc., doing business as Verastem Oncology, is an American pharmaceutical company that develops medicines to treat certain cancers. Headquartered and founded in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm is a member of NASDAQ Biotechnology Index.

History Verastem Oncology (Verastem Inc) was co-founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Christoph H. Westphal and venture capitalist Michelle Dipp, who provided seed funding and initial office space in Cambridge, MA. The company was formed to commercialize the work of the three other co-founders, MIT biologists Robert Weinberg, Eric S. Lander and Piyush Gupta, by discovering and developing drugs to treat cancer by targeting cancer stem cells. The company raised $16 million in the initial Series A financing. Westphal served as CEO and chairman of the board from 2010 to 2013. Under his leadership, the company raised $55 million through an IPO in 2012. Mr. Robert Forrester succeeded Christoph Westphal as Verastem's president and CEO in 2013. In July 2019, Brian Stuglik was appointed to chief executive officer (CEO) of Verastem Oncology.

Pipeline Their leading investigational drug is defactinib (VS-6063), is a small-molecule focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitor designed to kill cancer stem cells, intended for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. In October 2015, they announced the premature termination of the company's late-stage clinical trial for defactinib after data analysis of the Phase II COMMAND trial found no significant differences in efficacy versus placebo. . Following the failure of the study, the company had to cut 50% of its workforce. In November 2016, Verastem Oncology licensed global rights from Infinity Pharmaceuticals to duvelisib (IPI-145), a novel inhibitor of PI3K delta and gamma. In April 2018, Verastem filed a New Drug Application (NDA) for duvelisib for the treatment of relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) and accelerated approval for relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (FL). The results of the clinical study DUO were published in Blood Journal. Verastem Oncology received FDA approval for duvelisib on September 24, 2018, as a treatment for adults with 3rd-line chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma, and an accelerated approval as a 3rd-line treatment for follicular lymphoma, contingent on the results of a confirmatory trial. The drug label carries a black box warning due to the risk of potentially fatal or serious toxicities: infections, diarrhea or colitis, cutaneous reactions and pneumonitis. In July 2019, Verastem Oncology signed an exclusive agreement with Sanofi for the commercialization of duvelisib in Russia and CIS, Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.

References

External links

Official website Business data for Verastem Inc:

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Verastem Oncology

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Verastem Oncology claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Verastem Oncology before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Verastem Oncology ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Verastem Oncology

In research: Verastem Oncology appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Verastem Oncology in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Verastem Oncology is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies listed on the Nasdaq, Life sciences industry, Pharmaceutical companies established in 2010, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Verastem Oncology outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Verastem Oncology in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Verastem Oncology means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Verastem Oncology out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Verastem Oncology in simple terms?

Why does Verastem Oncology matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Verastem Oncology?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Verastem Oncology.