Latest News
November 2023
Artica Therapeutics closes €12M seed investment to develop covalent therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory disorders
April 2023
Artica Therapeutics successfully secures Mibiton financial lease funding
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 and was supported by Pre-seed financing from BioGeneration Ventures in 2021, followed by a Seed round supported by Thuja, Seroba, InnovationQuarter and BioGeneration in 2023. Artica is dedicated to finding new small molecule drugs for inflammatory and autoimmune indications using innovative approaches.
Artica is one of the leaders in the field of covalent binding technology as well as 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, creating 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 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 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 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 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.
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.
Want to be part of a dynamic and driven team, dedicated to making an impact on healthcare? We currently have the following interesting job opportunities in Leiden, The Netherlands.