Precision immunology company Scipher Medicine will absorb Chemomab Therapeutics after having identified the Israeli biotech’s rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drug as the ideal fit for its own expertise.
The merged entity will retain the Scipher brand and take advantage of Chemomab’s Nasdaq listing, although the ticker will switch to “SCIP.” The new company’s primary focus will be Chemomab’s RA asset nebokitug.
The plan is to take the anti-CCL24 antibody into a fresh phase 2 study that will also leverage Scipher’s multi-omic PrismRA blood test to help identify the most suitable patients. A topline readout from that study is penciled in for the first half of 2028, according to a July 8 release.
Chemomab has already taken nebokitug into a separate mid-stage trial, where the drug “demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile and improvement in both inflammatory and fibrotic-related biomarkers,” the companies said in this morning’s release.
Schipher CEO Reginald Seeto—who will lead the merged business—said that CCL24 had been identified by the Massachusetts company’s AI precision medicine platform as “the highest-ranked clinical stage RA target for efficacy.”
“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,” Seeto added in the release. “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.”
Meanwhile, Chemomab CEO Adi Mor, Ph.D.—who will join the board of the merged company—said he believed the 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,” Mor pointed out.
Under the deal, which has been signed off by the boards of both companies, Chemomab’s shareholders will own 32% of the merged company and will also be in line for potential milestone payouts related to nebokitug’s progress. Scipher’s current equity holders will own 68% of the new company.
The combined company is expected to have a value of $150 million, ahead of an incoming $30 million from a private placement.