Vivace Therapeutics Secures $35 Million Series D

SAN MATEO &&num;8212&semi; Vivace Therapeutics, a small molecule discovery and development company developing first-in-class cancer therapies targeting the Hippo pathway, has closed a &dollar;35 million Series D financing&period; The round was led by RA Capital Management, an existing investor, 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 (TEAD) autopalmitoylation inhibitor, VT3989, with an initial focus on mesothelioma&period; In conjunction with the financing, Jake Simson, Ph&period;D&period;, partner at RA Capital Management, has joined the company&&num;8217&semi;s board of directors&period;&NewLine;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, 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, VT3989 has demonstrated excellent safety in the Phase 1 trial, positioning the compound with a best-in-class profile&period;&NewLine;Clinical findings for VT3989 have been particularly notable in patients with mesothelioma who have failed chemotherapy and immuno-oncology combination regimens, 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, 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 (FDA) later this year&period;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;Since participating in Vivace&&num;8217&semi;s Series C round, 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,&&num;8221&semi; said Dr&period; Simson&period; &&num;8220&semi;Based on the clinical progress to date, we believe that VT3989 is well positioned to serve as a dramatic leap forward in the mesothelioma standard of care, offering hope to patients battling a terrible disease with limited treatment options&period;&&num;8221&semi;&NewLine;&&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, including completing our ongoing clinical study and meeting with FDA to align on next steps,&&num;8221&semi; said Sofie Qiao, Ph&period;D&period;, president and chief executive officer of Vivace Therapeutics&period; &&num;8220&semi;We are grateful to RA Capital for leading this round, 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;&NewLine;

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