Sapience Therapeutics Strengthens Board of Directors and Management Team with Esteemed Business Development Executives

-Sapience appoints Pamela Esposito, Ph.D. to its Board and
Augustine Bourne as VP, Business Development-

TARRYTOWN, N.Y., Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Sapience Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of peptide therapeutics to address oncogenic and immune dysregulation that drive cancer, today announced that industry leaders Pamela Esposito, Ph.D. and Augustine Bourne have joined the Company. Biotech veteran Dr. Esposito joins Sapience's Board of Directors with two decades of business development and executive leadership experience, including a proven track record of creative deal-making, collaboration management and commercial and strategic planning. Mr. Bourne joins as VP, Business Development, adding a wealth of executive and corporate development expertise in life sciences to the Sapience management team. 

"We are thrilled to welcome Pamela and Augustine to Sapience to drive our corporate development strategy," said Sapience CEO and President, Dr. Barry Kappel. "Pamela is a well regarded deal-maker in our industry with a wealth of operating experience building innovative biotech companies. We look forward to her insights as we continue to develop and expand our clinical pipeline of peptide therapeutics. Augustine is an accomplished business development executive with an outstanding oncology deal sheet across modalities and geographies. Their combined expertise will be invaluable in supporting our success as we approach key inflection points in our ST316 program targeting β-catenin in colorectal cancer and lucicebtide (formerly known as ST101) in glioblastoma."

"With the tremendous progress Sapience has made in the clinic with ST316 and lucicebtide, I am excited to bring my expertise to bear at this important time for the Company," commented Dr. Esposito. "I have been frustrated that many cancer drivers are beyond the grasp of existing drug modalities. Sapience's therapeutic peptide platform offers a solution to otherwise undruggable protein-protein interactions inside of a cell. I see significant opportunities for what I believe to be first-in-class therapies."

"Joining Sapience is a highly compelling opportunity. The Company's late-stage oncology pipeline, combined with its ability to discover new peptides from its in-house platforms, present a wealth of options to deliver on strategic partnerships and drive value for both patients and key stakeholders," added Mr. Bourne. "I am thrilled to join the accomplished team and look forward to leveraging my industry and corporate development experience to help Sapience address the unmet needs of patients living with cancer."

Biographies of New Appointments:

Pamela Esposito, Ph.D., Member of Sapience's Board of Directors

Pamela has held a variety of strategy, commercial and business development positions in small biotech companies, playing lead roles in transformative deals for each company. Pamela most recently served as the Chief Business Officer of Replimune where, from its inception, she was responsible for both corporate and business development and raised approximately $1 billion over 9 years. Before Replimune, she was Chief Business Officer at Ra Pharmaceuticals (acquired by UCB for ~$2.7B). As an early member of Ra's senior management team, Pamela played a leadership role in strategy, helping Ra transform from a discovery platform to a clinical stage company and raising approximately $58 million in a Series B mezzanine funding round. Previously, she served as a business development consultant to Mariana Therapeutics, a peptide based radiopharma company, that was acquired by Novartis for $1B. Prior to Ra, she was VP of Business Development at Biovex and led the negotiation of the acquisition of the company by Amgen. Early in her career, she was a director at Bioduro based in Beijing, China and Vion Pharmaceuticals in New Haven, CT. Currently, Pamela sits on the board of directors of Accent Therapeutics and Kymera Therapeutics. Pamela earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Tufts University School of Medicine and a BA from Dartmouth College.

Augustine Bourne, VP, Business Development

Augustine has over 15 years of experience in the biotech and financial services industries. Prior to joining Sapience, he led business development and corporate strategy activities at Mirati Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb for up to $5.8B). Prior to Mirati, he served in roles of increasing responsibility at Regeneron, where he provided strategy and business development leadership in support of Regeneron's oncology and hematology pipelines. Augustine began his career as a lawyer in the London and New York offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where he advised the firm's clients on strategic transactions and securities offerings. Augustine received his MBiochem from the University of Oxford, GDL/LPC from BPP Law School and MBA from Columbia Business School.

About Sapience Therapeutics
Sapience Therapeutics, Inc. is a privately held, clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing peptide therapeutics to address oncogenic and immune dysregulation that drive cancer. With in-house discovery capabilities, Sapience has built a pipeline of therapeutic candidates called SPEARs™ (Stabilized Peptides Engineered Against Regulation) that disrupt intracellular protein-protein interactions, enabling targeting of transcription factors which have traditionally been considered undruggable, and can direct cargo to cell surface targets with their new class of molecule called SPARCs™ (Stabilized Peptides Against Receptors on Cancer), enabling delivery of payloads such as α-particles to cancer cells. Sapience is advancing its lead programs, ST316, a first-in-class antagonist of β-catenin, and lucicebtide (formerly known as ST101), a first-in-class antagonist of C/EBPβ, through Phase 2 clinical trials. 

For more information on Sapience Therapeutics, please visit https://sapiencetherapeutics.com/ and engage with us on LinkedIn.

Media and Investor Contact:
Amy Conrad
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(858) 366-3243
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SOURCE Sapience Therapeutics, Inc.