Centogene N.V., a commercial-stage company focused on rare diseases and Molecular Health, a company in the field of data and computing science for precision medicine, will collaborate exclusively to initiate the Real-life data and Innovative Bioinformatic Algorithms (RIBA) project – starting with Epilepsy as the first indication. RIBA aims to foster a unique novel precision medicine environment to accelerate, de-risk, and improve the development of new orphan drugs based on the combination of large real-life data sets in rare disease with big data, artificial intelligence, as well as computational algorithms. The companies expect merging real-life data with a global curated biomedical knowledge, as well as applying artificial intelligence and scientific computing will transform biomedical research, product development, and therapy.

Prof. Arndt Rolfs, CENTOGENE Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are excited about this collaboration. 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. The complementary expertise and knowledge of both companies will allow us to reduce the time to develop a new orphan drug by combining of real-life data and innovative computational biomedical expertise. CentoMD®, one of the world’s largest rare disease data repositories, allows us to take advantage of the high quality of the real-life data from a global cohort of more than 500,000 consented patients.”

“By starting this exciting collaboration between our companies, we are initiating and building a unique novel model of personalized healthcare. The combination of both companies’ data and expertise will ultimately transform modern drug development and therapy. It 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 Dr. Friedrich von Bohlen, Molecular Health Chief Executive Officer.