Latest News
March 2024
Artica Therapeutics appoints Piet Wigerinck to its Board of Directors
November 2023
Artica Therapeutics closes €12M seed investment to develop covalent therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory disorders
It's a new dawn, it's a new day. Every morning patients with immune diseases awake to face another day of coping with their debilitating conditions. But each day also brings hope, that someday there will be a cure.
At Artica we are driven by curiosity, passion and one common goal: to develop novel therapies for patients suffering from severe autoimmune and inflammatory disorders.
We leverage covalent chemistry to develop new medicines that potently and selectively inactivate disease-causing proteins over an extended period of time. Artica's covalent drugs display insurmountable binding by design, meaning that the drug continues to be active in case of excessive stimulation of the disease proteins.
It is our belief that covalent drugs can offer a more effective and safer treatment option, and therefore will not only benefit more patients, but also serve the individual patient better.
Artica Therapeutics B.V. and its seasoned team started operations in 2020. The venture was supported by Pre-seed financing from BioGeneration Ventures in 2021, followed by a Seed round supported by Thuja, Seroba, InnovationQuarter and BioGeneration Ventures in 2023. Artica is dedicated to finding new small molecule drugs for inflammatory and autoimmune indications using innovative approaches.
Artica is a leader in the field of covalent binding technology and in label-free cellular-based screening approaches. The unique combination of these capabilities allows rapid progression of drug candidates that have unprecedented and superior characteristics, resulting in novel and highly selective therapies for patients with unmet medical needs.
“It’s the question that drives us”. Innovation is the answer.
Tjeerd is co-founder and CEO of Artica Therapeutics. He has extensive experience in pharmaceutical Research and Development and contributed to the delivery of several clinical candidates in metabolic disease, autoimmune and oncology spaces. He successfully exploited the covalent binding paradigm for kinases and other protein families, resulting in the discovery and approval of BTK inhibitor Calquence.
Since Tjeerd joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1997, he served in various project and line management roles at Pharmacia & Upjohn, Biovitrum, Organon, Schering-Plough and MSD. Tjeerd co-founded Acerta Pharma and served as the EVP of Chemistry since its inception in 2013. Tjeerd has been a member of the Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Board for several oncology startup companies, including Cytura Therapeutics, PearlBio and Acerta Pharma.
Tjeerd holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry and MSc in Organic Chemistry from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Arwin is co-founder and COO of Artica Therapeutics. He is an experienced and strategy focused global drug development leader and has over 25 years of experience with a proven track record of bringing drugs to the market. At Astellas Pharma, in roles of increasing responsibility, he led the clinical and global development teams of Vesicare and Betmiga. He designed and implemented full development and lifecycle management strategies including creative trial designs. During his tenure at Astellas, he was a member of the portfolio strategy team for urology, and involved in candidate selection for clinical development. Arwin played a key role in the acquisition of Ogeda by Astellas and led the core team that defined the full development plan of fezolinetant (recently approved for vasomotor symptoms).
Arwin has a diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine from the University of Basel, Switzerland and a MSc in Organic Chemistry from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Ad joined Artica as a co-founder and SAB chair after his retirement from Leiden University, The Netherlands. There he led a large team working at the interface of structural biology, molecular pharmacology and medicinal chemistry. Ad’s main focus over the years has been the large superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).
In 2008 his team co-authored one of the first (Science) publications describing the 3D structure of the adenosine A 2A receptor, followed by a number of similar high-profile papers. As a medicinal chemist Ad developed thousands of NCEs, covered by both patents and scientific publications.
He also pioneered novel receptor concepts such as inverse agonism, constitutive activity, allosteric modulation and drug target binding kinetics, all principles for which he constituted large European consortia. He is the recipient of many prizes, including the 2020 Nauta Award for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology from the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry.
Ad received a Pharm D degree from Utrecht University and a PhD degree in medicinal chemistry from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Tjeerd is co-founder and CEO of Artica Therapeutics. He has extensive experience in pharmaceutical Research and Development and contributed to the delivery of several clinical candidates in the metabolic disease, autoimmune and oncology space. He successfully exploited the covalent binding paradigm for kinases and other protein families, resulting for instance in the discovery and approval of BTK inhibitor Calquence.
Since Tjeerd joined the pharmaceutical industry in early 1997, he served in various project and line management roles at Pharmacia & Upjohn, Biovitrum, Organon, Schering-Plough and MSD. Tjeerd co-founded Acerta Pharma and served as the EVP of Chemistry since its inception in 2013. Tjeerd has been a member of the Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Board for several oncology startup companies, including Cytura Therapeutics, PearlBio and Acerta Pharma.
Tjeerd holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry and MSc in Organic Chemistry from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Arwin co-founded Artica Therapeutics in 2020 and is COO. He is an experienced strategy focused global drug development leader and has over 25 years of experience with a proven track record of bringing drugs to the market. At Astellas Pharma, in roles of increasing responsibility, he led the clinical and global development teams of Vesicare and Betmiga. He designed and implemented full development and lifecycle management strategies including creative trial designs. During his tenure at Astellas he was a member of the portfolio strategy team for urology and involved in candidate selection for clinical development. Arwin played a key role in the acquisition of Ogeda by Astellas and led the core team that defined the full development plan of fezolinetant (recently approved for vasomotor symptoms).
Arwin has a diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine from the University of Basel, Switzerland and a MSc in Organic Chemistry from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Ad joined Artica as a co-founder and SAB chair after his retirement from Leiden University, The Netherlands. There he led a large team working at the interface of structural biology, molecular pharmacology and medicinal chemistry. Ad’s main focus over the years has been the large superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).
In 2008 his team co-authored one of the first (Science) publications describing the 3D structure of the adenosine A 2A receptor, followed by a number of similar high-profile papers. As a medicinal chemist Ad developed thousands of NCEs, covered by both patents and scientific publications.
He also pioneered novel receptor concepts such as inverse agonism, constitutive activity, allosteric modulation and drug target binding kinetics, all principles for which he constituted large European consortia. He is the recipient of many prizes, including the 2020 Nauta Award for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology from the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry.
Ad received a Pharm D degree from Utrecht University and a PhD degree in medicinal chemistry from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Tjeerd is co-founder and CEO of Artica Therapeutics. He has extensive experience in pharmaceutical Research and Development and contributed to the delivery of several clinical candidates in metabolic disease, autoimmune and oncology spaces. He successfully exploited the covalent binding paradigm for kinases and other protein families, resulting in the discovery and approval of BTK inhibitor Calquence.
Since Tjeerd joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1997, he served in various project and line management roles at Pharmacia & Upjohn, Biovitrum, Organon, Schering-Plough and MSD. Tjeerd co-founded Acerta Pharma and served as the EVP of Chemistry since its inception in 2013. Tjeerd has been a member of the Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Board for several oncology startup companies, including Cytura Therapeutics, PearlBio and Acerta Pharma.
Tjeerd holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry and MSc in Organic Chemistry from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Diede Brunen is a Principal at BGV where he is responsible for evaluating and structuring new investment opportunities across all disease areas.
Diede has extensive experience in translational biomedical research, spanning the areas of oncology and immunology. He currently serves as aboard observer for 5 BGV portfolio companies.
Diede performed his PhD research in prof. René Bernard's group at The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, during which he used genetic screens to identify novel synthetic lethality targets.
Michel Briejer, managing partner, joined Thuja Capital in early 2008.
Prior to that he held senior management positions in drug development, both in the international pharmaceutical industry (e.g. Janssen Pharmaceutica (Belgium), Yamanouchi (currently Astellas Pharma)) as well as in the biotech industry (Crucell).
Michel holds an MSc degree in Pharmacy (Utrecht University, cum laude) and a PhD in Pharmacology (Wageningen University), as well as a post-doctoral degree in Pharmaceutical Medicine (Dip.Phar.Med., European Center for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Basle).
Alan O’Connell is a Partner at Seroba. He has a background in product and business development in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Prior to joining the firm in 2003, Alan worked in a variety of product and business development roles at Elan Corporation (Dublin), American Biogenetic Sciences, Inc. (New York), and he also spent time in the Pharmacovigilance section at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (London). His previous venture capital experience was gained at Estée Lauder Investments (New York) and he still sits on the scientific advisory board of the Lauder funded Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.
Alan graduated with a Ph.D. (neuropharmacology) from the National University of Ireland, Galway in 1994 and has a Master’s degree in pharmacology from the University of London (1990). He carried out post-doctoral neuroscience research at University College, Dublin and has published in several scientific journals.
Piet Wigerinck is a pharmacist and holds a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the KU Leuven. He has over 30 years of R&D experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He has been a key driver of the research and development programs of 4 approved medicines: Prezista™, Olysio™ , Jyseleca™ and Rekambys™. He started his career in industry at the Janssen Research labs in Beerse (1988-1998), moved to Tibotec-Virco, where he was Vice President, Drug Discovery, Early Development and CMC (1998-2008). He then moved to Galapagos (2008-2021) finishing his time as Chief Scientific Officer. Under his leadership, Galapagos built out a pipeline of first-in class medicines that drove the growth of the company to a top European biotech player. He has been responsible for all aspects of drug discovery, preclinical research, CMC, phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials. He has a broad experience in anti-infective, autoimmune and anti-fibrotic disease research.
He is the scientific co-founder of Xinvento, a Dutch biotech that was acquired by Rhythm Pharmaceuticals in 2023 and Chief Scientific Advisor at Fibrocor Therapeutics in Canada. Piet is an independent board member of Ipsen SA, France, miDiagnostics NV, Belgium, Atriva Therapeutics GmbH, Germany, Symeres, Netherlands.
Tjeerd is co-founder and CEO of Artica Therapeutics. He has extensive experience in pharmaceutical Research and Development and contributed to the delivery of several clinical candidates in the metabolic disease, autoimmune and oncology space. He successfully exploited the covalent binding paradigm for kinases and other protein families, resulting for instance in the discovery and approval of BTK inhibitor Calquence.
Since Tjeerd joined the pharmaceutical industry in early 1997, he served in various project and line management roles at Pharmacia & Upjohn, Biovitrum, Organon, Schering-Plough and MSD. Tjeerd co-founded Acerta Pharma and served as the EVP of Chemistry since its inception in 2013. Tjeerd has been a member of the Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Board for several oncology startup companies, including Cytura Therapeutics, PearlBio and Acerta Pharma.
Tjeerd holds a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry and MSc in Organic Chemistry from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Diede Brunen is a Principal at BGV where he is responsible for evaluating and structuring new investment opportunities across all disease areas.
Diede has extensive experience in translational biomedical research, spanning the areas of oncology and immunology. He currently serves as a
board observer for 5 BGV portfolio companies.
Diede performed his PhD research prof. René Bernard's group at The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, during which he used genetic screens to identify novel synthetic lethality targets.
Michel Briejer, managing partner, joined Thuja Capital in early 2008.
Prior to that he held senior management positions in drug development, both in the international pharmaceutical industry (e.g. Janssen Pharmaceutica (Belgium), Yamanouchi (currently Astellas Pharma)) as well as in the biotech industry (Crucell).
Michel holds an MSc degree in Pharmacy (Utrecht University, cum laude) and a PhD in Pharmacology (Wageningen University), as well as a post-doctoral degree in Pharmaceutical Medicine (Dip.Phar.Med., European Center for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Basle).
Alan O’Connell is a Partner at Seroba. He has a background in product and business development in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Prior to joining the firm in 2003, Alan worked in a variety of product and business development roles at Elan Corporation (Dublin), American Biogenetic Sciences, Inc. (New York), and he also spent time in the Pharmacovigilance section at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (London). His previous venture capital experience was gained at Estée Lauder Investments (New York) and he still sits on the scientific advisory board of the Lauder funded Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.
Alan graduated with a Ph.D. (neuropharmacology) from the National University of Ireland, Galway in 1994 and has a Master’s degree in pharmacology from the University of London (1990). He carried out post-doctoral neuroscience research at University College, Dublin and has published in several scientific journals.
Piet Wigerinck is a pharmacist and holds a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the KU Leuven. He has over 30 years of R&D experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He has been a key driver of the research and development programs of 4 approved medicines: Prezista™, Olysio™ , Jyseleca™ and Rekambys™. He started his career in industry at the Janssen Research labs in Beerse (1988-1998), moved to Tibotec-Virco, where he was Vice President, Drug Discovery, Early Development and CMC (1998-2008). He then moved to Galapagos (2008-2021) finishing his time as Chief Scientific Officer. Under his leadership, Galapagos built out a pipeline of first-in class medicines that drove the growth of the company to a top European biotech player. He has been responsible for all aspects of drug discovery, preclinical research, CMC, phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials. He has a broad experience in anti-infective, autoimmune and anti-fibrotic disease research.
He is the scientific co-founder of Xinvento, a Dutch biotech that was acquired by Rhythm Pharmaceuticals in 2023 and Chief Scientific Advisor at Fibrocor Therapeutics in Canada. Piet is an independent board member of Ipsen SA, France, miDiagnostics NV, Belgium, Atriva Therapeutics GmbH, Germany, Symeres, Netherlands.
Andrew is EVP and Head of Early Development for Astellas with accountability for the design and delivery of phase 1 and 2 clinical programs across oncology, immune-oncology, cell / gene therapies and biopharmaceuticals. Andrew has experience of leading and optimizing translational medicine,
clinical operations and clinical pharmacology functions to meet the needs of a diverse portfolio.
Previous to working at Astellas he held multiple roles in both research and development at AstraZeneca contributing directly to the development of five drugs that have been approved for the treatment of cancer, including Tagrisso which was initiated in in his research team. He later became Chief Scientific Officer for Acerta Pharma and supported the approval and life cycle of Calquence.
Andrew has served as a scientific advisor for multiple start-up companies with a focus on oncology. Andrew received a PhD in Organic Chemistry and MA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Luke O’Neill is Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He is a world expert on innate immunity and inflammation. His main research interests include Toll-like receptors, Inflammasomes and Immunometabolism. He is listed by Thompson Reuters/ Clarivates in the top 1% of immunologists in the world, based on citations per paper. Professor O'Neill is co-founder of Sitryx, which aims to develop new medicines for inflammatory diseases. Another company he co-founded, Inflazome was acquired by Roche in 2020.
He was awarded the Royal Dublin Society / Irish Times Boyle Medal for scientific excellence, the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Life Sciences, The Society for Leukocyte Biology (SLB) Dolph O. Adams award, the European Federation of Immunology Societies Medal, the Milstein Award of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society and the Landsteiner Award from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organisation) and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Jackie is the CSO of Sorriso Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company advancing orally delivered disease-modifying antibodies for treatment of inflammatory disease. Jackie has over 23 years of experience in immunology drug discovery and development and joined Sorriso from Johnson & Johnson where she was Vice President of Immunology Scientific Innovation. Previously Jackie launched and led a Janssen Incubator internal venture team to develop novel therapeutics for systemic lupus erythematosus. She also led Discovery research teams and pharmacology studies for STELARA ® for which she and others received the Johnson Medal in 2010. Jackie also led the invention of TREMFYA ® for which she and others received the Johnson Medal in 2020.
Jackie holds a B.S. in Biology from The Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University. She was awarded a National Multiple Sclerosis Society postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Jason Witherington is the Global Head of External Immunology Johnson & Johnson Innovation and is located at the Innovation Centre in London. In this role, he is responsible for growing the immunology academic and industry network in Globally and to identify and advance external opportunities in the field of immunology.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson Innovation he worked for Galvani Bioelectronics (a GSK/Google-Verily funded company) where, as Vice President and Head of Translational Sciences, he was the founding member responsible for establishing a unit in the emerging field of peripheral neuromodulation for controlling immune homeostasis. This unit created and delivered scientific strategies for advancing projects from early inception through to clinical stage programs.
Prior to this, Jason spent nearly 20 years at GSK in the fields of neurology, oncology and immunology. His most recent role was Vice President and Discovery Performance Unit Head within the immuno-inflammation therapy area unit, responsible for leading multidisciplinary teams to identify and advance projects from early target validation through to clinical proof of concept. He has over 100 peer reviewed publications and patents. Jason received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Reading, UK, and completed his post-doctoral work in Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
Andrew is EVP and Head of Early Development for Astellas with accountability for the design and delivery of phase 1 and 2 clinical programs across oncology, immune-oncology, cell / gene therapies and biopharmaceuticals. Andrew has experience of leading and optimizing translational medicine,
clinical operations and clinical pharmacology functions to meet the needs of a diverse portfolio.
Previous to working at Astellas he held multiple roles in both research and development at AstraZeneca contributing directly to the development of five drugs that have been approved for the treatment of cancer, including Tagrisso which was initiated in in his research team. He later became Chief Scientific Officer for Acerta Pharma and supported the approval and life cycle of Calquence.
Andrew has served as a scientific advisor for multiple start-up companies with a focus on oncology. Andrew received a PhD in Organic Chemistry and MA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Luke O’Neill is Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He is a world expert on innate immunity and inflammation. His main research interests include Toll-like receptors, Inflammasomes and Immunometabolism. He is listed by Thompson Reuters/ Clarivates in the top 1% of immunologists in the world, based on citations per paper. Professor O'Neill is co-founder of Sitryx, which aims to develop new medicines for inflammatory diseases. Another company he co-founded, Inflazome was acquired by Roche in 2020.
He was awarded the Royal Dublin Society / Irish Times Boyle Medal for scientific excellence, the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Life Sciences, The Society for Leukocyte Biology (SLB) Dolph O. Adams award, the European Federation of Immunology Societies Medal, the Milstein Award of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society and the Landsteiner Award from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organisation) and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Jackie is the CSO of Sorriso Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company advancing orally delivered disease-modifying antibodies for treatment of inflammatory disease. Jackie has over 23 years of experience in immunology drug discovery and development and joined Sorriso from Johnson & Johnson where she was Vice President of Immunology Scientific Innovation. Previously Jackie launched and led a Janssen Incubator internal venture team to develop novel therapeutics for systemic lupus erythematosus. She also led Discovery research teams and pharmacology studies for STELARA ® for which she and others received the Johnson Medal in 2010. Jackie also led the invention of TREMFYA ® for which she and others received the Johnson Medal in 2020.
Jackie holds a B.S. in Biology from The Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University. She was awarded a National Multiple Sclerosis Society postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Jason Witherington is the Global Head of External Immunology Johnson & Johnson Innovation and is located at the Innovation Centre in London. In this role, he is responsible for growing the immunology academic and industry network in Globally and to identify and advance external opportunities in the field of immunology.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson Innovation he worked for Galvani Bioelectronics (a GSK/Google-Verily funded company) where, as Vice President and Head of Translational Sciences, he was the founding member responsible for establishing a unit in the emerging field of peripheral neuromodulation for controlling immune homeostasis. This unit created and delivered scientific strategies for advancing projects from early inception through to clinical stage programs.
Prior to this, Jason spent nearly 20 years at GSK in the fields of neurology, oncology and immunology. His most recent role was Vice President and Discovery Performance Unit Head within the immuno-inflammation therapy area unit, responsible for leading multidisciplinary teams to identify and advance projects from early target validation through to clinical proof of concept. He has over 100 peer reviewed publications and patents. Jason received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Reading, UK, and completed his post-doctoral work in Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
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