NEW YORK – Vivace Therapeutics on Wednesday said it has completed initial enrollment and dosed the first patient in its Phase I clinical trial of VT3989, a TEAD inhibitor for the treatment of metastatic solid tumors and advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma.
The study, currently in dose-escalation phase, is open at cancer centers in the US and in Australia. The company will begin enrolling patients to receive the next higher dose of VT3989 in the latter part of May and aim to enroll 80 patients in the trial overall.
Once dosage has been determined, the firm will study VT3989 in a cohort of patients with metastatic solid tumors or advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma who have NF2-mutated tumors and have progressed on standard treatments. Researchers will measure safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics along with tumor response.
In a preclinical study published last month, researchers at Vivace found that VT3989 and its other TEAD inhibitors showed activity against NF2-mutated mesothelioma and other tumors. "The Phase I clinical study is designed to test the translatability of our preclinical observations in cancer patients as quickly as possible," Vivace Chief Medical Officer Andrew Dorr said in a statement.
San Mateo, California-based Vivace has raised $70 million since launching in 2017. The company is using the funds to advance drugs that target the previously undruggable Hippo-YAP, a pathway that can be activated by NF2 mutations in certain cancers. The firm's pipeline also includes another TEAD inhibitor for glioblastoma and meningioma.