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Scipher Medicine and Roivant collaborate to advance rheumatology drug development with RWE

  • Katie McCool
A skeletal hand model and pill bottles sit on a desk as a doctor reviews an X-ray in the background.

Scipher Medicine and Roivant will leverage real-world evidence (RWE) and precision medicine to address treatment variability in rheumatoid arthritis and advance the development of more effective, personalized therapies.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects an estimated 20 million patients worldwide and presents significant challenges in treatment due to the variability in individual patient responses. To address these challenges, Scipher Medicine, a precision medicine company focused on autoimmune diseases, has joined forces with Roivant, a global biopharmaceutical firm. Their partnership aims to advance rheumatology drug discovery and development by incorporating real-world clinical and genomic data insights from Scipher’s proprietary PrismRA® technology into Roivant’s research initiatives.

Roivant aims to utilize Scipher’s data-driven insights, which incorporate AI, network biology, and proprietary genomic data, to enhance its efforts in advancing therapies. The integration of genetic data with longitudinal patient records has the potential to reveal new information about disease progression and treatment response. These insights could support the optimization of drug development pipelines and inform therapeutic decision-making.

“We are excited to partner with Scipher Medicine to further enhance our data and insight capabilities,” said Brett Venker, Head of Real-World Evidence at Roivant. “The combination of genetic data with longitudinal patient records offers a powerful opportunity to uncover deeper insights into disease progression and treatment response, enabling more precise and informed decision-making. Integrating Scipher’s rich dataset will empower us to generate critical insights, accelerate our decision-making process, and advance the development of potentially transformative therapies for patients.”

At the core of this partnership is Scipher’s PrismRA test, a blood-based diagnostic that uses 19 genomic markers to identify patients unlikely to respond to tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) therapies, one of the most widely used drug classes for RA. By enabling more personalized treatment decisions, the test helps minimize unnecessary drug trials and improve clinical outcomes. Supporting this precision approach is Scipher’s extensive genomic data asset, which includes a biobank of RA-specific genomic data and electronic health records (EHRs) from over 3 million rheumatology patients.

“This strategic partnership unites the strength of precision medicine with real-world evidence to accelerate the development and delivery of transformative therapies,” said Reg Seeto, Scipher’s CEO, “By combining Scipher’s unique rheumatology data assets with Roivant’s proven track record of bringing innovative medicines to market, we are poised to advance personalized medicine and improve patient lives.”

The announcement is the second research alliance announced by Scipher Medicine this year.

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