Centogene and Molecular Health Collaborate to Transform the Development of Orphan Drugs

Rare Daily Staff

Bioinformatics companies Centogene and Molecular Health have entered into an exclusive collaboration to initiate the Real-life Data and Innovative Bioinformatic Algorithms (RIBA) project aimed at accelerating, de-risking, and improving the development of new orphan drugs based on the combination of large real-life data sets in rare disease with innovative big data, artificial intelligence, as well as computational algorithms and expertise.

The companies say this strategy of merging real-life data with a global curated biomedical knowledge, as well as applying artificial intelligence and scientific computing will radically change and transform biomedical research, product development, and therapy. Additionally, RIBA will offer data-/computing-driven solutions to guide the highest and most precise innovation for the new way of drug development in a modern biopharmaceutical environment.

Centogene has developed a global proprietary rare disease platform based on its real-world data repository with approximately 3.0 billion weighted data points from more than 530,000 patients representing over 120 different countries. Its platform includes epidemiologic, phenotypic, and genetic data that reflects a global population, and also a biobank of these patients’ blood samples.

“Both companies have been analyzing the potential interaction for an extended period of time and are deeply convinced that now is the right time to start an exclusive cooperation focusing on rare genetic diseases,” said Arndt Rolfs, CEO of Centogene. “The expertise of Molecular Health will not only speed up the identification of new targets in rare disease, but also allow us to de-risk and accelerate the development of new orphan drugs.”

Molecular Health has developed an AI system to enable and improve decision-making in precision medicine for healthcare organizations. Its curated, interoperable system combines clinical/molecular and drug data with proprietary analytical processes to improve diagnosis and therapy decisions by physicians and patients; and support better drug discovery and development, trial optimization, and drug differentiation and positioning for pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations.

The collaboration will allow for the development of better drugs with higher specificity and safety, lower attrition rates in clinical studies, and a faster time to market to help patients with severe diseases worldwide through novel therapies, said Friedrich von Bohlen, CEO of Molecular Health.

The companies have agreed to start with epilepsy as the first indication. Financial details were not disclosed.