Sapience Therapeutics Completes $14 million Preferred Stock Financing
Sapience Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of peptide therapeutics to address difficult to treat oncology indications, announced today that it has raised $14 million in its preferred stock financing. Sapience issued shares of its convertible preferred stock in this financing.
The net proceeds from the preferred stock financing will be used to complete the Phase 1 clinical study and for the initiation of the Phase 2 clinical study of Sapience's lead drug candidate ST101. Sapience will also use the net proceeds to advance its β-catenin antagonist into IND-enabling studies, and further develop its pipeline of therapeutic peptides.
The financing included participation from Bristol Myers Squibb, a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. Along with their investment, Bristol Myers Squibb has been granted a Board Observer seat, which will be held by Dr. Mark Rolfe.
Dr. Barry Kappel, chief executive officer and founder of Sapience Therapeutics, stated, "Completing our preferred stock financing during this tumultuous year is a credit to our entire team at Sapience. Despite obvious challenges, we advanced ST101 into the clinic on our original timeline, we generated a wealth of new preclinical data on our pipeline programs, and we raised $14 million to enable us to continue on our mission to change the lives of cancer patients and their families. The financial support of Bristol Myers Squibb speaks volumes of these accomplishments and the addition of Dr. Rolfe as a Board Observer demonstrates their commitment to making this a successful endeavor. Dr. Rolfe has an excellent track record of developing protein and peptide-based therapeutics and is a great compliment to our current Board composition."