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 immune-selectively and durably protect the integrity of organs and tissue compartments afflicted by tissue-destructive autoimmunity. The company’s next major 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 non-malignant 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.
The Game Change
AlloCyte's lead program allosterically targets a specific immune receptor, the leukocyte integrin LFA-1. In severe tissue-destructive autoimmunity, LFA-1 is found over-expressed on distinct leukocyte subsets, associated with a dramatic shift of these leukocytes’ function: Rather than helping the immune system to counter foreign and intrinsic immune attacks, these LFA-1 over-expressing leukocyte subsets acquire the capacity to attack and kill non-malignant cell populations of the own organism which are normally protected against such self-attack.
Aberrant autoimmune self-destruction appears to depend on LFA-1 over-activity per se. It appears not to be backed by fail-safe redundancies which safeguard normal self-protective immune responses. Of note, these safeguarding redundancies stay intact even when the function of LFA-1 is lost. This is the case in human genetic states of complete loss of LFA-1 function as well as upon pharmacologic LFA-1 suppression, as currently in topical use by hundreds of thousands of patients afflicted by dry eye disease.
AlloCyte’s goal is not to suppress LFA-1 yet to recalibrate aberrant LFA-1 over-activity back to normal LFA-1 activity ranges. Therapeutic objective is to resolve the aberrant self-kill of autoimmunity by durably restoring immune balance. Translational and clinical data published as recently as 2026 (including the pioneering description of complete life-long loss of LFA-1 function in humans) identify LFA-1 (and integrins, in general) as network receptors deeply integrated within immune regulatory networks (rather than serving as mere adhesion or homing receptors). In close cooperation with US clinical immunologists, AlloCyte is leading the field in translating these most recent immune-regulatory insights into unprecedented therapeutic benefits for patients afflicted by tissue-destructive autoimmunity.
The orally available allosteric platform pharmacology to achieve integrin-selective recalibration of LFA-1 over-activity 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, in conjunction with excellent oral tolerability and PK characteristics. A translational bridging study in autoimmune patient biomaterials yielded the intended pharmacodynamic effect profile without unwanted effects of an earlier non-allosteric integrin directed pharmacology. In consequence, the project’s next major target milestone will be clinical therapeutic proof-of-concept in a severe tissue-destructive autoimmune disease.
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.