Bright Peak Therapeutics is a biotechnology company advancing a portfolio of multifunctional immunotherapies to treat cancer and other diseases. “We are now well positioned to bring much needed innovation to the field of anti-PD-1 immune-checkpoint inhibition and look forward to advancing our lead program into the clinic later this year across multiple tumor types” said Fredrik Wiklund, Chief Executive Officer of Bright Peak.
The round was led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, with participation from additional new investors Venrock, KB Investment, and Northleaf Capital Partners. Existing investors participating in the round include founding investor Versant Ventures along with Fidelity Management & Research Company, RA Capital Management, Qatar Investment Authority, Invus, Alexandria Venture Investments, and an undisclosed leading healthcare investment fund.
Bright Peak’s lead program BPT567 is a first-in-class PD1-IL18 immunoconjugate designed to provide simultaneous blockade of the PD(L)-1 checkpoint pathway and targeted delivery of IL-18 signaling.
In preclinical models, BPT567 induced profound synergistic anti-tumor activity by blocking PD-1 and specifically targeting the potent proinflammatory effects of IL-18 to effector T cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) with more limited activation of immune cells in the periphery.
Bright Peak’s chemical protein synthesis technology was initially developed by our Founders Vijaya Pattabiraman and Jeffrey Bode at ETH Zürich and the company was seeded and launched by Versant Ventures at the firm’s Ridgeline Discovery laboratories. The company is based in Allschwil (BS) and San Diego, CA.
(Press release / SK)