On December 16, 2020 Vivace Therapeutics, Inc., a small molecule discovery and development company developing first-in-class therapies targeting the Hippo pathway, reported the closing of a $30 million Series C financing (Press release, Vivace Therapeurtics, DEC 16, 2020, View Source [SID1234572937]). The company anticipates advancing its clinical candidate into first-in-human studies in early 2021, targeting tumors dependent on activated YAP. The Series C financing was led by Boxer Capital with participation from new investor RA Capital Management alongside existing investor Canaan Partners. With the financing, Dr. Norman Zhou of Boxer Capital has joined the board of directors at Vivace.
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"We are honored to welcome Boxer Capital and RA Capital Management to our team and to have their support. The Hippo pathway has generated much interest, and we are excited to have discovered a portfolio of diverse chemical classes of compounds with excellent in vitro and in vivo activities. To the best of our knowledge, we will be the first company to take a molecule into the clinic targeting this novel pathway," said Sofie Qiao, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Vivace Therapeutics.
"We see tremendous opportunity for the Hippo pathway and are excited to support the Vivace team as it progresses its development candidate through the clinic to address this unmet medical need." said Aaron Davis, Chief Executive Officer of Boxer Capital, LLC.
"For nearly a decade we have been tracking efforts to drug the YAP pathway, which we believe is a key driver of tumorigenesis and acquired drug resistance," commented Jake Simson, Principal, RA Capital Management. "We are excited to join this high-quality investor syndicate and partner with the Vivace management team, which has a deep track record of developing transformative precision oncology medicines, to bring the first TEAD inhibitor into the clinic."
Vivace Therapeutics’s compounds inhibit palmitoylation of members of the transcriptional enhanced associate domain (TEAD) protein family. Pre-clinical research and development activities show that the clinical candidate is active as a monotherapy and in combination with other anti-cancer therapies against tumors that rely upon dysfunction of the Hippo pathway.