Founded in 2023, Mallia Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing soluble CD83 (sCD83) for the treatment of hair loss.

sCD83, which was discovered as an immune modulator by Mallia co-founder Prof. Dr. Alexander Steinkasserer in 2001, is a naturally occurring soluble form of the human CD83 protein CD83. sCD83 has an immune-modulatory function and induces hair growth via a dual mode of action: Firstly, it induces an anti-inflammatory environment at the hair follicle via regulatory T cells (Tregs), which interact with follicular stem cells and thereby activate hair growth. Secondly, sCD83 directly binds to follicular stem cells where it induces the formation of new hair follicles. This way, sCD83 should not only prevent hair loss and accelerate growth like current marketed topical treatments but also induce the growth of new hair.

In addition to the potential to re-grow hair, sCD83 is expected to exhibit a superior safety profile. As a human glycoprotein, that does not penetrate through the skin, sCD83 has no systemic availability and thus expected to have no systemic toxicity.

Mallia is developing treatments for hormone-induced male or female pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia) and autoimmune mediated male or female patchy hair loss (alopecia areata), the two most prevalent forms of hair loss.

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