On February 9, 2022 Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMPI) ("Checkmate"), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing its proprietary technology to harness the power of the immune system to combat cancer, reported the appointment of Alan Bash as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective March 1, 2022 (Press release, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, FEB 9, 2022, View Source [SID1234607897]). Mr. Bash, who will also join the Board of Directors, will succeed Alan Fuhrman, who has served as interim President and Chief Executive Officer since October 2021. Mr. Fuhrman will continue to serve Checkmate as a member of the Board of Directors.
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"I am very pleased to welcome Alan Bash as President and CEO. With over two decades of leadership experience at Bristol Myers Squibb, Mr. Bash has extensive expertise translating innovative science into meaningful advances for patients, notably driving the successful launch and commercialization of Opdivo and Yervoy," said Mike Powell, Chairman of the Board of Directors. "Under Alan’s leadership, Checkmate will continue developing novel treatments for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers. The Company’s lead program vidutolimod, continues to progress in multiple clinical studies and towards registration in refractory melanoma. I want to thank Mr. Fuhrman for his outstanding stewardship as interim President and CEO over these past months."
"I am honored to be joining an experienced management team, an accomplished Board and a Company built on the potential to improve the lives of those living with cancer," said Mr. Bash. "Vidutolimod combines a powerful, unique immune activator, CpG-A DNA, with an innovative delivery platform, that has demonstrated potential best-in-class efficacy in certain patients whose tumors were non-responsive to approved immunotherapies."
Mr. Bash’s appointment follows the recent additions of Jon Wigginton, M.D. and Joy Yan, M.D., Ph.D. to the Checkmate Board of Directors. These appointments provide complementary leadership and immuno-oncology expertise and position Checkmate well to advance the development of vidutolimod and unlock its value potential.
Mr. Bash will join Checkmate from Bristol Myers Squibb ("BMS"), where he currently serves as Senior Vice President, Commercial Model Innovation, and prior to that, Senior Vice President, Commercial for Immunology and Fibrosis, partnering with Research & Development to advance early and late-stage assets in the integrated BMS and Celgene portfolios. He has a deep expertise in immuno-oncology, having led the U.S. launch of the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, Opdivo; serving as franchise lead for metastatic melanoma; and leading the launch of the first FDA-approved checkpoint combination. He also served as Worldwide Vice President for BMS’s lung cancer franchise and led the product team for a targeted treatment for head and neck cancer and colorectal cancer. He earned his BA from Georgetown University and his MBA from Columbia Business School.