Scil Technology receives public research grant for novel rheumatoid arthritis treatments

Scil Technology GmbH, a biopharmaceutical company with core expertise in protein drug development, formulation and analytics, today announced that it has been awarded research funding by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under BMBF’s KMU-innovativ scheme. The EUR 0.9 million grant supports Scil Technology’s research program to explore the therapeutic potential of repellent proteins for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

“We are very pleased about the funding,” said Christian Nafe, CEO of Scil Technology. “The grant will enable us to explore an innovative, causal treatment for a debilitating, chronic disease with a huge unmet medical need.”

The course of RA is affected by the destruction of cartilage tissue and inflammation of the joints. Recently it has been published that so-called repellent proteins inhibit fundamental processes relevant for the development of the disease. “Therefore, this protein class bears the potential to provide the first causative treatment of RA,” said Dr. Carola Dony, CSO of Scil Technology.

“The delivery of protein products in this indication is challenging,” said Christian Nafe. “However, we have long-standing experience with the controlled, sustained release of therapeutically active proteins for regenerative purposes, and we will now apply our know-how to optimize the product profile.”