Mallia Therapeutics GmbH, a biopharmaceutical company based in Erlangen, Germany, announced today that the newly formed company has raised capital through seed funding. The company is developing soluble CD83 (sCD83) for the treatment of hair loss and plans to develop the sCD83 candidate based on preclinical and ex vivo human data first presented in June.
Following a series of previous project grants, Mallia Therapeutics, m4 Award winner of 2021, has successfully launched the seed funding round to continue its preclinical research. Given the promising results of the ongoing preclinical studies with soluble CD83 (sCD83) for the treatment of hair loss, including results with tissue samples from patients, Dr. Manfred Groeppel, co-founder and CEO of Mallia Therapeutics, hopes to enter the clinical phase and start treating patients within the next two years.
Worldwide, more than 50% of men as well as 50% of women beyond menopause are affected by hormonally induced androgenetic alopecia (hair loss), and another 147 million suffer from autoimmune-related circular hair loss (alopecia areata). Despite the high demand for effective therapies, there are currently only treatment methods that merely prolong the life cycle of existing hair and often do not lead to new hair growth, or systemically suppress the immune system with undesirable side effects. sCD83 is designed to address the weak points of existing therapies with a dual mechanism of action.
The naturally occurring, soluble form of the human protein CD83 is thought to induce an anti-inflammatory milieu at the hair follicles via an effect on regulatory T cells (Tregs), which interact with the follicular stem cells and thereby activate hair growth. Furthermore, sCD83 binds directly to the follicular stem cells and stimulates the formation of new hair follicles there. In this way, sCD83 not only prevents hair loss and accelerates hair growth, but also stimulates the growth of new hair.
The preclinical results with sCD83 showed that the dual mechanism of action can lead to new hair growth, with the topical formulation penetrating to the hair roots and follicular stem cells, but not acting systemically. In this way, adverse effects that may occur with systemic immunomodulation can be avoided.
Based on the very promising data and to meet the financial needs to conduct a clinical trial, Mallia Therapeutics plans to raise a Series A financing promptly after the completion of the seed round.
About the m4 Award
With the m4 Award, initiated by BioM in 2011, the Free State of Bavaria supports innovative products, technologies or services of young companies that decisively advance the further development of medicine of the future. The prize is awarded every two years. A total of 30 research projects have been honored in the six rounds of competition to date. 14 spin-offs have been realized since then.