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news.Sapience Therapeutics has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Columbia University to develop a first-in-class cancer treatment, which the Company refers to as ST-36.
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Under the terms of the agreement, Sapience will gain exclusive rights to the development and commercialization of intellectual property developed at Columbia University by Drs. Lloyd Greene and James Angelastro.
ST-36 is a protein-based therapeutic that targets a factor which activates particular genes and may play an important role in allowing certain cells to become cancerous.
Once administered, ST-36 prevents the activation of these genes in tumors, resulting in tumor-specific cell death.
Particular properties that make ST-36 so promising include: (1) systemic administration results in activity beyond the blood brain barrier allowing for treatment of tumors in the brain, such as glioblastoma, (2) upon entering the cell, ST-36 can translocate to the nucleus where it is needed to exert its effect, (3) the effects appear limited to cancer cells, sparing non-cancerous cells in the body, and (4) preliminary safety data indicates ST-36 to be well tolerated.
Sapience Therapeutics founder and CEO Barry Kappel said: "We are pleased to have obtained an exclusive license with Columbia University to develop this promising treatment approach. ST-36 is the exact opportunity that we built Sapience to support — it is well grounded with years of scientific research and data to support its development, it provides a new mechanistic approach for the treatment of serious oncology indications, mechanistically it should synergize with current standard(s) of care, and it has the opportunity to move rapidly towards the clinic to begin impacting patients' lives. We are proud to be working with Columbia University on this program."
Jerry Kokoshka, senior associate director at Columbia Technology Ventures, stated, "Our goal at Columbia Technology Ventures is to find licensing partners who can transform technologies from our research labs into life-saving, life-enhancing therapies that will benefit human health.
"In working with Sapience, we have found the right partner to develop this technology, which holds great promise for the treatment of brain tumors as well as other oncology indications."