Date: 2015-08-12
Type of information: Series A financing round
Company: Checkmate Pharmaceuticals (USA - MA)
Investors: Sofinnova Ventures (USA - CA) venBio (USA - CA)
Amount: $ 20 million
Funding type: series A financing round
Planned used: Checkmate Pharmaceuticals will use the funds to advance CYT003 in oncology clinical development. The company has been granted an exclusive access to Cytos’clinically validated product candidate CYT003 as well as its VLP platform and to technology related to oligonucleotide synthesis. “Our data indicate that CYT003 and the VLP technology platform will enhance the efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 antibodies, addressing a critical unmet therapeutic need in immuno-oncology and providing a better set of treatment options for patients with cancer,” said Art Krieg, CEO of Checkmate. These funds will further enable the company to develop additional generations of oligonucleotide-based products in the field of immuno-oncology. The company is validating an approach that will combine the ability of CpG DNA to activate an anti-tumor T cell response with checkpoint inhibition to overcome a tumor’s ability to mute the immune response.
Others: * On August 12, 2015, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel approaches for cancer immunotherapy, announced their $20 million Series A financing from Sofinnova Ventures and venBio. Checkmate Pharmaceuticals is pursuing a novel approach to specifically activating the innate arm of the immune system to recognize and ultimately destroy tumor cells.
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
