Galapagos In-licenses Novel Drug Targets for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Discovered by Scipher Medicine’s Spectra™ Platform

Collaboration Achieves Key Milestones After Preclinical Validation Work, Triggers Milestone Payment to Scipher

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Scipher Medicine today announced that Galapagos (Euronext & NASDAQ: GLPG) has exercised its option to in-license novel drug targets for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) discovered by Scipher’s Spectra™ platform.

In August 2020, Galapagos and Scipher Medicine agreed to jointly validate a suite of novel IBD targets discovered by Spectra, whereby Galapagos has the exclusive option to in-license certain validated preclinical targets for further development and commercialization. After extensive validation work, Galapagos is moving selected targets into the next phase of drug development, triggering a milestone payment to Scipher and making Scipher eligible to receive additional payments for the achievement of regulatory and sales milestones.

“By partnering with Scipher, we are effectively and efficiently identifying new targets to ultimately develop new therapies to address unmet needs of people with IBD,” said Richard Janssen, head of Search and Evaluation, at Galapagos.

Spectra is fueled by one of the largest patient molecular data lakes in autoimmune diseases and unique artificial intelligence network science-based algorithms. The platform identifies biologically similar patients and drug targets that are specific to those patients to improve response rates.

“Drug development in autoimmune diseases is entering an era of precision medicine similar to what we have experienced in oncology in the past decade. There is a significant unmet medical need for drugs that target a specific disease population with higher clinical response rates,” said Alif Saleh, chief executive officer, at Scipher Medicine. “Driven by our access to large patient population molecular data, partnerships like the one with Galapagos can bring new and more effective treatments to diseases with currently low drug response rates or limited treatment options.”

About Scipher Medicine

Scipher Medicine, a precision immunology company matching each patient with their most effective therapy, believes that patients deserve simple answers to treatment options based on scientific data. Using Spectra™, our proprietary network medicine platform, we commercialize tests revealing a person’s unique molecular disease signature and match it to the most effective therapy, ensuring optimal treatment from day one. The patient molecular data generated from our tests further supports the discovery and development of novel and more effective therapeutics. We partner with leading payers, health care providers, and pharmaceutical companies to bring solutions to patients with autoimmune diseases. Visit sciphermedicine.com and follow Scipher Medicine on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.