Vivace Therapeutics Secures $35 Million Series D

<p><strong><span class&equals;"legendSpanClass">SAN MATEO<&sol;span> <&sol;strong>&&num;8212&semi; Vivace Therapeutics&comma; a small molecule discovery and development company developing first-in-class cancer therapies targeting the Hippo pathway&comma; has closed a <span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;35 million<&sol;span> Series D financing&period; The round was led by RA Capital Management&comma; an existing investor&comma; and included investment from other existing investors Canaan Partners and Cenova Capital&period; Proceeds will support the continued clinical development of the company&&num;8217&semi;s first-in-class and best-in-class transcriptional enhanced associate domain &lpar;TEAD&rpar; autopalmitoylation inhibitor&comma; VT3989&comma; with an initial focus on mesothelioma&period; In conjunction with the financing&comma; <span class&equals;"xn-person">Jake Simson<&sol;span>&comma; Ph&period;D&period;&comma; partner at RA Capital Management&comma; has joined the company&&num;8217&semi;s board of directors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>VT3989 is a novel small molecule cancer therapeutic that targets the Hippo pathway by inhibiting palmitoylation of members of the TEAD protein family&period; The compound has been evaluated in more than 150 patients to date in an ongoing&comma; open-label Phase 1 clinical study and is the first and only member of the TEAD autopalmitoylation inhibitor class for which compelling clinical efficacy data have been publicly reported&period; In addition to promising efficacy&comma; VT3989 has demonstrated excellent safety in the Phase 1 trial&comma; positioning the compound with a best-in-class profile&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Clinical findings for VT3989 have been particularly notable in patients with mesothelioma who have failed chemotherapy and immuno-oncology combination regimens&comma; which represent the only approved therapies in this indication&period; These results will be presented at a major medical conference in the second half of 2025&period; Based on these data&comma; Vivace is working to advance VT3989 toward a randomized registrational Phase 3 clinical trial in patients with mesothelioma and intends to discuss its plans with the United States Food and Drug Administration &lpar;FDA&rpar; later this year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Since participating in Vivace&&num;8217&semi;s Series C round&comma; we have had a front row seat for the tremendous progress the company has made in its efforts to address the significant unmet treatment need of patients with mesothelioma&period; The team&&num;8217&semi;s impressive drive and continued execution made our decision to lead this Series D round an easy one&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Dr&period; Simson&period; &&num;8220&semi;Based on the clinical progress to date&comma; we believe that VT3989 is well positioned to serve as a dramatic leap forward in the mesothelioma standard of care&comma; offering hope to patients battling a terrible disease with limited treatment options&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The results of our clinical evaluation of VT3989 to date give us confidence that the appropriate next step for the program is advancement into a registrational Phase 3 trial in patients with mesothelioma&period; We are now laser focused on executing against this strategy&comma; including completing our ongoing clinical study and meeting with FDA to align on next steps&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">Sofie Qiao<&sol;span>&comma; Ph&period;D&period;&comma; president and chief executive officer of Vivace Therapeutics&period; &&num;8220&semi;We are grateful to RA Capital for leading this round&comma; as well as the continued support from Canaan Partners and Cenova Capital&period;  This new funding will prove critical to enabling our successful development of VT3989&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;