June 2020
American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge to Invest in Checkmate Pharmaceuticals
BrightEdge participated in the Series C funding round for Checkmate Pharmaceuticals.
BrightEdge, LLC, the American Cancer Society’s philanthropic impact fund, today announced its participation in the Series C funding round of Checkmate Pharmaceuticals (www.checkmatepharma.com), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused upon activation of innate immunity to treat cancer. The investment is BrightEdge’s fifth since its formation in late 2018 to invest in companies developing promising cancer-related therapeutics.
Checkmate Pharmaceuticals’ lead product candidate, CMP-001, is an investigational cancer immunotherapeutic that has been shown to reverse resistance to anti-PD-1 therapy in some patients. Checkmate is a privately held company headquartered in Cambridge, Mass.
“Checkmate has the potential to develop an immunotherapeutic focused on a population of patients with high unmet need,” said Gary Reedy, American Cancer Society chief executive officer. “This is strongly aligned with the American Cancer Society’s mission to save lives, celebrate lives, and lead the fight for a world without cancer.”
This is BrightEdge’s second investment in the melanoma space. In 2019, BrightEdge invested in Castle Biosciences (NAS: CSTL), a prognostic gene expression profile test that utilizes tumor biology to provide an individual risk of recurrence or metastasis for patients with melanoma.
BrightEdge is the American Cancer Society’s donor-funded, philanthropic impact fund. The fund invests in for-profit companies developing novel cancer-focused treatments. BrightEdge’s goal is to accelerate market delivery of promising cancer-related treatments through capital investment, market awareness and a shared commitment to eradicate cancer.
Checkmate raised $85 million in the round led by Longitude Capital. The capital will be used to fund clinical trials and company operations. BrightEdge is investing alongside Longitude Capital, Novo Holdings, Omega Funds, Medicxi, Sofinnova Investments, venBio, F-Prime Capital, Decheng Capital, Clough Capital Partners, and Sectoral Asset Management.
About BrightEdge: BrightEdge, LLC is the American Cancer Society’s donor-funded, philanthropic impact fund. The fund invests in for-profit companies developing novel cancer-focused treatments. BrightEdge’s goal is to accelerate market delivery of innovative oncology treatments through capital investment, market awareness, and a shared commitment to eradicate cancer. An investment or other financial vehicle of BrightEdge into a company does not constitute an express or implied endorsement of any products or services of the company by the American Cancer Society or BrightEdge. For more information, visit www.brightedgefund.org
For further information: Teri Mitchell Porter: teri.mitchellporter@cancer.org