Precision medicine startup Scipher has secured a new round of funding totaling $110 million to help develop its line of blood tests, which assesses an individual’s compatibility with specific drugs and drug classes. The recent round comes less than a year after Scipher’s $82 million Series C, meaning its total investment clutch has nearly doubled to $227 million.
Cowen Healthcare Investments led the financing, with old and new investors Neuberger Berman, Hitachi Ventures, Laurion Capital, Monashee Investment Management, Khosla Ventures, Optum Ventures, Echo Health Ventures, and Alumni Ventures also participating. Northpond Ventures and aMoon, the duo which headed the previous Series C, pitched in as well. Round leader Cowen will be represented on Scipher’s board of directors by its Partner and Head of Research, Tim Anderson.
The startup evaluates patient-specific drug responses with its AI-fueled platform, which can compare patients’ molecular signatures with its interactome, a comprehensive library of biological data that can estimate the compatibility for interaction among different molecules. Scipher uses these metrics to identify a patient’s particular disease signature, predict their reaction to a spectrum of drugs, and pinpoint molecular targets to help alternative drug development for biologically resistant individuals.
With this work, Schipher is catering to the 8% of Americans living with autoimmune diseases. The nature of these conditions, which effectively pit the body against its own immune system, make each patient’s unique genetic composition dictate specific treatments.
