US-based biotechnology company Sapience Therapeutics raised $22.5m yesterday in a series A round led by venture capital firm Eshelman Ventures that featured healthcare company Celgene.
The round also involved Healthlink Capital and TaiAn Technologies, a biotechnology advisory and commercialisation firm backed by industrial corporates including China Steel, Taiwan Fertilizer and Oriental Union Chemical.
Sapience, a spinout of Columbia University, is developing therapies for conditions with a significant unmet medical need, focusing particularly on high mortality cancers.
The company’s lead drug candidate, ST-36, targets a protein responsible for tumour growth in several oncological indications, including glioblastoma (GBM), a severe type of brain cancer. The money will support the further development of ST-36.
Barry Kappel, chief executive and founder of Sapience Therapeutics, said: “We are pleased to have the financial support of Eshelman Ventures, as well as a team of highly experienced advisors and directors, to guide us in the development of this potentially transformative cancer drug.
“Having this level of support speaks to the promise of the compound we licensed from Columbia University and the significant need for therapeutics to address some of the most serious and deadly types of cancer, such as GBM.”