About
Who is AlloCyte Pharmaceuticals AG ?
AlloCyte Pharmaceuticals AG is a Swiss-based company discovering, developing and commercializing oral next generation allosteric integrin modulators to durably protect the integrity of organs and tissue compartments afflicted by tissue-destructive autoimmunity. The company’s next target milestone is clinical therapeutic proof-of-concept in a severe tissue-destructive autoimmune disease.
'The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.'
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Need
Autoimmunity afflicts 5-8% of the general population, with the prevalence of autoimmune diseases still rising. The spectrum of immune-modulatory and immune-ablative interventions for autoimmune diseases continues to expand, making immune-mediated diseases the second largest research field after oncology. However, there is no intervention to date which directly and immune-selectively targets the central pathology of serious autoimmunity, the destruction of self-tissue by the patient’s own immune system. In consequence, there remain tissue-destructive autoimmune diseases of devastating prognoses for which no effective therapy is available. AlloCyte has been founded to alter this situation, taking a highly innovative route.
The Game Change
AlloCyte's lead program targets a distinct immune receptor, the leukocyte integrin LFA-1, which is centrally involved in autoimmune self-tissue destruction. LFA-1 is over-expressed in severe autoimmunity on distinct leukocyte subsets, associated with a dramatic change of these leukocytes’ function: Rather than helping the immune system to counter immune attacks (e.g. viral infections), these LFA-1 over-expressing leukocyte subsets acquire the capacity to attack and kill the organism’s own cells. The phenomenon is not observed the same in self-protective immune responses and does not appear backed by fail-safe redundancies naturally safeguarding protection of self. AlloCyte’s intervention aims to integrin-selectively recalibrate this LFA-1 over-activity back to normal activity ranges, restoring immune balance.
The orally available allosteric platform pharmacology to accomplish this integrin-selective recalibration is patent-protected and fully owned by AlloCyte. A study of AlloCyte’s first drug candidate in animals afflicted by an experimental autoimmune disease has established oral-use proof-of-principle. A translational bridging study in autoimmune patient biomaterials yielded the intended pharmacodynamic effect profile without unwanted effects of an earlier integrin directed pharmacology. Recent impact publications (including the identification of hitherto un-recognized human LFA-1 genetic deficiency states) affirm LFA-1 as a uniquely positioned target for systemic immune-regulatory precision intervention to durably resolve autoimmune self-tissue destruction.
The Company
Founded by a team of drug developmental competency, i.e. successful developers of market-leading therapeutics in the field of immunology and reputated professionals of pharma-industrial and academic backgrounds, AlloCyte is fortunate in having access, since its inception, to leading professional networks in academia and pharmaceutical industry which span a broad spectrum of drug developmental expertise. Supported by public and matching private and corporate funds, AlloCyte engages in drug-developmentally integrated cooperations with leading investigators, reputated academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies. With pharmacological bridging to clinical proof-of-concept by an earlier clinically used integrin pharmacology achieved, AlloCyte is currently expediting its oral-use lead program for therapeutic proof-of-concept in AlloCyte's first autoimmune target indication of high unmet need.