WALTHAM, Mass., March 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Scipher Medicine, a precision immunology company matching patients with the most effective therapy, announced the completion of its Series C financing led by aMoon and Northpond Ventures, with participation from Echo Health Ventures and existing investors, Khosla Ventures and Alumni Ventures. To date, the company has raised $117 million.
An estimated $630 billion is wasted each year when patients are prescribed drugs they don’t respond to, placing an undue clinical and financial burden on the healthcare system at large. The majority of rheumatoid arthritis patients prescribed the world’s largest selling drug class, tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) therapy, don’t respond to treatment at a per-patient cost of over $65,000 per year, even though alternative effective drugs are available in the market.
Scipher Medicine will use proceeds to expand commercial efforts for its patient molecular signature test, PrismRA®, ensuring rheumatoid arthritis patients are prescribed optimal targeted therapy from day one, and data collaborations to discover novel treatment targets based on their large and growing patient clinico-genomic database generated from tested patients.
“With more data being generated from tested patients every day, we are continuously serving our provider, payer, and pharma partnerships with unique insights into the most optimal treatment pathway for patients with autoimmune diseases,” said Alif Saleh, Chief Executive Officer at Scipher. “We are thrilled to have the support of our investor partners as we continue on our endeavor of using data to ensure improved patient care is at the center of healthcare.”
“There is a significant opportunity to bring precision medicine solutions to autoimmune diseases especially for rheumatoid arthritis to address a critical unmet need,” said Todd Sone, General Partner at aMoon. “We are incredibly excited about PrismRA and honored to join Scipher on this journey towards a future where precision medicine is applied across healthcare to ensure patients are prescribed the most effective therapy.”
“Providing access to tests such as PrismRA is critical to delivering optimal care for patients with rheumatoid arthritis while ensuring that specialty drug spend is directed towards effective therapies that actually help autoimmune patients live a better life,” said Kurt Sheline, Principal at Echo Health Ventures. “Scipher’s approach to ensuring therapy is directed to appropriate patients creates cross-stakeholder alignment towards higher quality, more cost-effective care.”
“A significant number of patients are continuously taking suboptimal drugs. To ameliorate this, it is important to analyze a patient’s individual molecular signature to ensure optimal therapy is prescribed. Scipher Medicine is a leader in precision medicine for autoimmune disease, as indicated with the release of their PrismRA test,” said Michael P. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., CFA, Founder and CEO at Northpond Ventures. “We continue to be impressed with how the team is executing on its vision to use its Network Medicine platform to transform the understanding of disease and drug selection across the healthcare system.”
About PrismRA®
PrismRA, a molecular signature test, is a revolutionary advancement bringing precision medicine to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, which affects 20 million patients globally. From a routine blood draw, the PrismRA test analyzes an individual’s molecular signature, helping identify who is unlikely to adequately respond to TNFi therapy, the world’s largest selling drug class, so non-responders can be prescribed alternative effective therapy. Providers now have objective data to guide therapeutic decision-making and give patients the best chance of achieving treatment targets and improving clinical outcomes. For more information, please visit www.PrismRA.com
About Scipher Medicine
Scipher Medicine, a precision immunology company, holds the fundamental belief that patients deserve simple answers to treatment options based on scientifically backed data. Leveraging our proprietary Network Medicine platform and artificial intelligence, we commercialize blood tests revealing a persons’ unique molecular disease signature and match such signature to the most effective therapy, ensuring optimal treatment from day one. The unprecedented amount of patient molecular data generated from our tests further drives the discovery and development of novel and more effective therapeutics. We partner with payers, providers, and pharma along the health care value chain to bring precision medicine to autoimmune diseases. Visit www.sciphermedicine.com and follow Scipher on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About aMoon
aMoon is a global HealthTech and Life Sciences investment fund based in Israel. We partner with outstanding entrepreneurs who bring together ground-breaking science and technology to transform healthcare. Together with our portfolio companies, we work tirelessly to accelerate cure by advancing solutions that will help people live longer, healthier and better lives. Learn more by visiting the website, www.amoon.fund
About Northpond Ventures
Northpond Ventures is a global science, medical, and technology focused venture capital firm, with offices in Bethesda, Cambridge, and San Francisco. Northpond Ventures has in excess of $1 billion of committed capital. Our mission is to build a better tomorrow. Learn more at: www.npv.vc.
About Echo Health Ventures
Echo Health Ventures drives systemic health care transformation through hands-on, purpose-driven strategic venture capital and growth equity investing. Echo brings together USAble Corporation, Cambia Health Solutions and Mosaic Health Solutions to accelerate health care innovation on a national scale and support meaningful health care impact. For more information, please visit www.echohealthventures.com.
