Dr. Westphal and Mr. Aldrich founded Verastem, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSTM) (“Verastem”) in 2010 with Professors Eric Lander, Ph.D. (Broad Institute/MIT/Harvard Medical School), and Robert Weinberg, Ph.D. (Whitehead Institute/MIT), with Dr. Westphal serving as CEO and on the board of directors for several years. Verastem focuses on discovering and developing drugs to improve the survival and quality of life of cancer patients. In 2018, Verastem received approval for its lead product COPIKTRA™ (duvelisib) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) after at least two prior therapies.COPIKTRA also received accelerated approval for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) after at least two prior systemic therapies.