{"entity":{"id":"costim-pharmaceuticals","kind":"company","name":"CoStim Pharmaceuticals","aka":["CoStim Pharmaceuticals Inc."],"tldr":"CoStim Pharmaceuticals worked on antibodies that remove the signals cancers use to switch off the immune system, including against PD-1. Novartis bought it in 2014 while its programmes were still in the laboratory.","summary":"CoStim Pharmaceuticals was a privately held Cambridge, Massachusetts company focused on harnessing the immune system to remove immune-blocking signals from cancer. Novartis announced its acquisition on 17 February 2014, adding late-discovery-stage immunotherapy programmes directed at several targets including PD-1, to complement its CAR-T work with the University of Pennsylvania; terms were not disclosed. Atlas Venture lists CoStim as developing antibodies for immuno-oncology, sold to Novartis in 2014, and an Atlas partner's blog post says it was founded in 2012.","asOf":"2026-11-04","links":[{"label":"Novartis acquires CoStim (SEC 6-K, 17 February 2014)","url":"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1114448/000110465914010831/a14-6099_16k.htm"},{"label":"LifeSciVC post on the acquisition","url":"https://lifescivc.com/2014/02/immuno-oncology-startup-costim-pharmaceuticals-acquired-by-novartis/"},{"label":"Atlas Venture portfolio entry","url":"https://atlasventure.com/portfolio/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["immunotherapy"],"technologies":["checkpoint-inhibitor"],"targets":["pd1"],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Founding year 2012 is from the LifeSciVC post by an Atlas Venture partner, not from a company filing.","No company website or trial found; programmes were preclinical at acquisition."],"hq":"Cambridge, MA","country":"US","companyType":"biotech","founded":2012,"stage":"acquired","investors":["atlas-venture"],"funding":[],"acquiredBy":"novartis"},"route":"/companies/costim-pharmaceuticals/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"immunotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Immunotherapy","route":"/fronts/immunotherapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"checkpoint-inhibitor","kind":"technology","name":"Immune checkpoint inhibitors","route":"/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/"}],"target":[{"id":"pd1","kind":"target","name":"PD-1","route":"/targets/pd1/"}],"company":[{"id":"atlas-venture","kind":"company","name":"Atlas Venture","route":"/companies/atlas-venture/"},{"id":"novartis","kind":"company","name":"Novartis","route":"/companies/novartis/"}]}}