New investor NexPoint led the financing round, which included participation from existing investors Eshelman Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Kingdon Capital.
A convertible note, which was provided by NexPoint in December last year, was also converted into Series B shares as part of the financing round.
Sapience plans to utilise the funds to speed-up the advancement of its peptide therapeutics’ pipeline to disrupt protein-protein interactions and drug well-validated cancer pathways.
The funding will also help in advancing its lead programme, ST101, and progress its second programme, ST316, from IND-enabling studies to the begin a Phase I study.
ST101 is a first-in-class antagonist of C/EBPβ, which is currently being assessed in the Phase II portion of a Phase I-II clinical study that is underway in advanced unresectable and metastatic solid tumour patients.
Sapience CEO and president Dr Barry Kappel said: “From attracting a quality investor syndicate in our financing announced today to establishing clinical proof-of-concept with a confirmed partial response in Phase 1 with our lead programme, ST101, we continue to execute on our corporate goals and deliver on our mission to improve the lives of patients with cancer.”
Additionally, the company will use the proceeds for advancing its platform for discovering new treatments against high-value targets for difficult-to-treat cancer indications.
Sapience chief financial officer Marisa Frackman said: “The proceeds from this financing will advance our programs through meaningful clinical read-outs and will enable us to expand our pipeline that targets protein-protein interactions, which we believe hold considerable promise in oncology.”