New York Medical College incubator adds therapeutics startup

New York Medical College’s BioInc@NYMC biotech incubator will add a seventh tenant to its Valhalla campus.

Sapience Therapeutics Inc., joined the incubator, the school recently announced. Sapience is developing novel therapeutics to address high-mortality cancers.

The therapeutics startup recently raised $22.5 million in its first round of financing. That money will primarily support the development of Sapience”™s main drug candidate, ST-36, which targets a protein that promotes the growth of several types of tumors, including glioblastoma, the most severe and deadly form of brain cancer.

“The BioInc@NYMC incubator provides us with the resources to develop our novel treatment approaches and flexibility to grow as needed,” said Barry Kappel, president and CEO of Sapience Therapeutics.  “Importantly, BioInc@NYMC allows a startup such as Sapience to hit the ground running and work towards our goal of saving patients”™ lives.”

Launched in October 2014, BioInc@NYMC occupies a 10,000-square-foot wing of a 129,000-square-foot campus building at 7 Dana Road in Valhalla. The incubator operates as a public-private enterprise, combining resources from the federal government, the state, Westchester County and NYMC.  It has also been approved by Start-Up NY space and received the Mid-Hudson Innovation Hot Spot award granted by the New York State Regional Economic Development Council.