SCARSDALE, NY — (Marketwired) — 09/07/16 — Sapience Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics to address difficult to treat oncology indications, announced today that it has appointed Samuel Broder, MD, to its Board of Directors. Dr. Broder is the former head of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the largest and most important Agency for cancer research in the world. Dr. Broder was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as Director of the NCI in 1989, and he held the position for six years. While at the NCI, he oversaw the development of numerous anti-cancer therapeutic agents, such as TAXOL®, helped launch a number of large-scale clinical trials related to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, and inaugurated the highly successful SPORE Program.
Howard Pien, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sapience Therapeutics, added, “We are fortunate to have attracted someone with Sam’s scientific, clinical, and regulatory experience in the fields of oncology and medicine to the Sapience Board of Directors. We look forward to his contribution towards our effort of developing a potentially pioneering product.”
“I welcome Sam to our Board and look forward to working with him as we develop ST-36 for GBM and other oncology indications as well,” said Barry Kappel, Sapience’s president and chief executive officer. “In addition to leading the NCI, Sam has developed some of the most important drugs to treat AIDS, helped decipher the human genome, and has been on the leading edge of science within gene therapy and synthetic biology. We are delighted to have Sam join our team.”
“I am very excited to be part of what is being built at Sapience Therapeutics,” stated Dr. Broder. “Translating science from the bench to the bedside in an effort to develop truly breakthrough medicines has been a focus of my career for more than 35 years. At Sapience we have a really interesting molecule, an important target that has a deep and emerging body of literature to support its role in tumor biology, and a team that can move this program forward at a rapid pace. I am proud to be part of this effort and this team.”
Dr. Broder spent his entire career in translational medicine, and his laboratory interests have included antiretroviral therapy, the relationship between immunodeficiency disorders and cancer, the human genome, and the proteomics of cancer cells. In the mid-1980s, in response to the AIDS pandemic, he focused his attention on HIV-1/AIDS. His laboratory played a major role in developing the first 3 agents approved by FDA specifically to treat the AIDS virus. These are the novel nucleosides Retrovir® (AZT), Videx® (ddI), and HIVID® (ddC).
After his tenure at the NCI, Dr. Broder joined the Celera Corporation at its founding in 1998, as the Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer, and helped advance the human genome project, the elucidation of the 3 billion letters of code that make up human DNA. His most recent position was as SVP, Health Sector, Intrexon Corp, with responsibilities for gene therapy and synthetic biology.
Dr. Samuel Broder graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor in 1970. He did an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University in Palo Alto, and then did subspecialty training in medical oncology at the NCI in Bethesda. He is the author or co-author of over 340 scientific publications, and is an inventor on many patents. He has received numerous scientific awards related to his research in cancer and AIDS. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1993.
About Sapience Therapeutics
Sapience Therapeutics, Inc., is a privately held, preclinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics for major unmet medical needs, particularly high mortality cancers. Our drug development program involves translating science into novel therapies, and our initial goal is to develop a first-in-class treatment for glioblastoma (GBM), which is the most severe and deadly form of brain cancer. For more information on Sapience Therapeutics, please visit www.sapiencetherapeutics.com.
Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, and any statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements may include, among other things, statements regarding future events that involve significant risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on management’s current expectations, and actual results and future events may differ materially as a result of certain factors, including, without limitation, risks related to the application of the net proceeds from the offering to Sapience’s product development objectives, our ability to obtain additional funds, and meet applicable regulatory standards and receive required regulatory approvals. These are forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Sapience does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, changed assumptions or otherwise.
Contacts
Sapience Therapeutics, Inc.:
Barry Kappel
President and Chief Executive Officer
info@sapiencetherapeutics.com
Source: Sapience Therapeutics, Inc.
Released September 7, 2016
