Verastem Oncology Announces Addition to Russell 3000® and Russell Microcap® Indexes

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Verastem Oncology (Nasdaq: VSTM), a biopharmaceutical company committed to advancing new medicines for patients with cancer, today announced that in connection with the 2024 Russell U.S. Indexes annual reconstitution, the company will be added to the Russell 3000^® and Russell Microcap^® Indexes, effective at the open of U.S. equity markets today, Monday, July 1, 2024.

“The recognition and increased exposure of being added to the Russell Indexes underscore the recent progress we’ve made across our pipeline, which includes bringing avutometinib in combination with defactinib one step closer to being a potential new treatment option for patients with recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer in the U.S.,” said Dan Paterson, president and chief executive officer of Verastem Oncology. “We remain on track to announce mature data from RAMP 201 and complete our rolling NDA submission in the second half of 2024 while advancing our other clinical programs in metastatic pancreatic cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Now that GenFleet has initiated the Phase 1/2 clinical trial in China for GFH375/VS-7375, a potent and selective oral KRAS G12D (ON/OFF) inhibitor, we look forward to leveraging this data to accelerate a path forward in the U.S. and rest of world.”

The annual Russell indexes reconstitution captures the 4,000 largest U.S. stocks as of Thursday, April 30, 2024, ranking them by total market capitalization. Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for active investment strategies. According to the data as of the end of December 2023, about $10.5 trillion assets are benchmarked against the Russell U.S. indexes, which belong to FTSE Russell, a prominent global index provider.

For more information on the Russell 3000^® Index and the Russell indexes reconstitution, go to the “Russell Reconstitution” section of the FTSE Russell website.

About Verastem Oncology

Verastem Oncology (Nasdaq: VSTM) is a late-stage development biopharmaceutical company committed to the development and commercialization of new medicines to improve the lives of patients diagnosed with cancer. Our pipeline is focused on RAS/MAPK-driven cancers, specifically novel small molecule drugs that inhibit critical signaling pathways in cancer that promote cancer cell survival and tumor growth, including RAF/MEK inhibition and FAK inhibition. For more information, please visit www.verastem.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

About FTSE Russell

FTSE Russell is a leading global provider of benchmarking, analytics, and data solutions for investors, giving them a precise view of the market relevant to their investment process. A comprehensive range of reliable and accurate indexes provides investors worldwide with the tools they require to measure and benchmark markets across asset classes, styles, or strategies.

FTSE Russell index expertise and products are used extensively by institutional and retail investors globally. For over 30 years, leading asset owners, asset managers, ETF providers and investment banks have chosen FTSE Russell indexes to benchmark their investment performance and create ETFs, structured products, and index-based derivatives.

FTSE Russell is focused on applying the highest industry standards in index design and governance, employing transparent rules-based methodology informed by independent committees of leading market participants. FTSE Russell fully embraces the IOSCO Principles, and its Statement of Compliance has received independent assurance. Index innovation is driven by client needs and customer partnerships, allowing FTSE Russell to continually enhance the breadth, depth and reach of its offering.

FTSE Russell is wholly owned by London Stock Exchange Group.

For more information, visit https://www.lseg.com/en/ftse-russell.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements about, among other things, Verastem Oncology’s programs and product candidates, strategy, future plans and prospects, including statements related to the impact of the company’s addition to the Russell 3000® and Russell Microcap® Indexes, the expected outcome and benefits of collaborations, including with GenFleet Therapeutics (Shanghai), Inc. (“GenFleet”), the timing of commencing and completing trials, including topline data reports, interactions with regulators, the potential for the commercialization of product candidates and potential for additional development programs involving Verastem Oncology’s lead compound. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “potential,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “continue,” “can, " “promising” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statement.

Applicable risks and uncertainties include the risks and uncertainties, among other things, regarding: the success in the development and potential commercialization of our product candidates, including avutometinib in combination with other compounds, including defactinib, LUMAKRAS and others; the uncertainties inherent in research and development, such as negative or unexpected results of clinical trials, the occurrence or timing of applications for our product candidates that may be filed with regulatory authorities in any jurisdictions; whether and when regulatory authorities in any jurisdictions may approve any such applications that may be filed for our product candidates, and, if approved, whether our product candidates will be commercially successful in such jurisdictions; our ability to obtain, maintain and enforce patent and other intellectual property protection for our product candidates; the scope, timing, and outcome of any legal proceedings; decisions by regulatory authorities regarding trial design, labeling and other matters that could affect the timing, availability or commercial potential of our product candidates; whether preclinical testing of our product candidates and preliminary or interim data from clinical trials will be predictive of the results or success of ongoing or later clinical trials; that the timing, scope and rate of reimbursement for our product candidates is uncertain; the market opportunities of our drug candidates are based on internal and third-party estimates which may prove to be incorrect; that third-party payors (including government agencies) may not reimburse; that there may be competitive developments affecting our product candidates; that data may not be available when expected; that enrollment of clinical trials may take longer than expected, which may delay our development programs, including delays in submission or review by the FDA of our NDA submission in recurrent KRAS mutant LGSOC if enrollment in our confirmatory trial is not well underway at the time of submission; that our product candidates will cause adverse safety events and/or unexpected concerns may arise from additional data or analysis, or result in unmanageable safety profiles as compared to their levels of efficacy; that we maybe unable to successfully validate, develop and obtain regulatory approval for companion diagnostic tests for our product candidates that require or would commercially benefit from such tests, or experience significant delays in doing so; that the mature RAMP 201 data and associated discussions with the FDA may not support the scope of our rolling NDA submission for the avutometinib and defactinib combination in LGSOC, including with respect to KRAS wild type LGSOC; that our product candidates may experience manufacturing or supply interruptions or failures; that any of our third-party contract research organizations, contract manufacturing organizations, clinical sites, or contractors, among others, who we rely on fail to fully perform; that we face substantial competition, which may result in others developing or commercializing products before or more successfully than we do which could result in reduced market share or market potential for our product candidates; that we will be unable to successfully initiate or complete the clinical development and eventual commercialization of our product candidates; that the development and commercialization of our product candidates will take longer or cost more than planned, including as a result of conducting additional studies or our decisions regarding execution of such commercialization; that we may not have sufficient cash to fund our contemplated operations , including certain of our product development programs; that we may not attract and retain high quality personnel; that we or Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. will fail to fully perform under the avutometinib license agreement; that our total addressable and target markets for our product candidates might be smaller than we are presently estimating; that Secura Bio, Inc. will fail to fully perform under the asset purchase agreement with Secura Bio, Inc., including in relation to milestone payments; that we will not see a return on investment on the payments we have and may continue to make pursuant to the collaboration and option agreement with GenFleet or that GenFleet will fail to fully perform under the agreement; that we may not be able to establish new or expand on existing collaborations or partnerships, including with respect to in-licensing of our product candidates, on favorable terms, or at all; that we may be unable to obtain adequate financing in the future through product licensing, co-promotional arrangements, public or private equity, debt financing or otherwise; that we will not pursue or submit regulatory filings for our product candidates; and that our product candidates will not receive regulatory approval, become commercially successful products, or result in new treatment options being offered to patients.

As a result of these and other factors, we may not achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Other risks and uncertainties include those identified under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 14, 2024, and in any subsequent filings with the SEC, which are available at www.sec.gov and www.verastem.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240701632456/en/