Combined company plans to advance nebokitug, a first-in-class anti-CCL24 antibody, through a precision medicine Phase 2 trial in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by leveraging Scipher’s AI Network Medicine platform designed to reduce risk and significantly increase the probability of clinical success 

Scipher’s AI Network Medicine platform identified CCL24 as a top-ranked therapeutic target for RA and used its proprietary data to identify a potential therapeutic response signature intended to support the selection of RA patients who potentially could benefit from treatment with nebokitug

Phase 2 RA clinical study expected to read out in H1 2028, providing a potential key inflection point

Combined company has multiple opportunities to create value for stakeholders, including the development of nebokitug as potentially the first precision medicine for RA and Scipher’s revenue-generating businesses that include biopharma partnerships using Scipher’s proprietary preclinical and clinical de-risking platform; Scipher’s immunology data business and Scipher’s commercial precision medicine business that includes PrismRA®, the only test approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for predicting RA treatment response

Combined company is valued at $150 million before concurrent $30 million private placement from top-tier investors and is expected to have cash runway into H2 2028

In support of the Merger, a syndicate of current Scipher investors led by Northpond Ventures, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, funds managed by Neuberger, and other leading investors, has committed to a new financing to Scipher, Chemomab and the combined company totaling approximately $30 million in gross cash proceeds. The combined company’s cash balance at closing is expected to fund company operations through H2 2028. A topline readout of the RA Phase 2 trial results is expected in H1 2028.

The combined company will be named “Scipher Medicine Corporation” and will be led by Chief Executive Officer Dr. Reginald Seeto. Chemomab co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Adi Mor, PhD, will join the combined company’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Seeto commented, “As a leader in precision medicine with the first and only CMS-approved molecular signature assessing treatment response in immunology, we are thrilled to move forward with this merger with Chemomab. We believe this combination will enable us to advance nebokitug as the first precision medicine for the millions of RA patients whose disease is not well treated by current medications. Notably, there have been no new novel mechanisms approved in RA by the FDA since 2012, and no new branded FDA approvals in RA since 2019. Nebokitug, which blocks the chemokine CCL24, represents a unique dual acting mechanism in RA as it targets both inflammation and fibrosis. It has already demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile and improvement in both inflammatory and fibrotic related biomarkers in a Phase 2 trial. In addition, CCL24 was independently identified as the highest-ranked clinical stage RA target for efficacy using our AI Network Medicine Platform. The proposed Phase 2 study design uses standard 12-week FDA RA endpoints and will incorporate AI-enabled precision medicine by using Scipher’s validated multi-modal, multi-omic PrismRA® test to guide patient enrollment. We are excited to apply our pioneering work in AI-powered precision medicine and our broad medical and clinical immunology expertise to the further development of nebokitug. Beyond RA, we see opportunities in multiple immunological diseases.”

“At Chemomab, we always saw nebokitug, our first-in-class CCL24-blocking, dual mechanism antibody, as potentially applicable to a wide range of inflammatory and fibrotic conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis,” said Dr. Adi Mor. “This view has been validated by Scipher’s AI precision medicine platform, which used multiple molecular signatures to identify nebokitug as the leading candidate to address a major unmet need in RA, currently a $24 billion market. We believe this merger provides our shareholders a compelling potential opportunity to realize value through the clinical advancement of nebokitug in a large indication with substantial unmet need and well-established clinical endpoints, as well as through Scipher’s revenue-generating precision medicine business and its strong biopharma partnerships. Additionally, the opportunity remains to secure a potential partner for a Phase 3 trial in primary sclerosing cholangitis, an indication with no FDA-approved therapies. We look forward to working with our colleagues at Scipher to complete the proposed transaction and expedite the initiation of the Phase 2 trial in RA, marking an exciting new phase in the development of nebokitug and our anti-CCL24 platform.”