Alys Pharmaceuticals has announced its launch with a research and development (R&D) immuno-dermatology focused pipeline backed by a $100m financing from Medicxi.

Co-founded by Medicxi and a team of dermatology and scientific specialists, Alys Pharmaceuticals is led by co-founder and COO Thibaud Portal, with Medicxi’s Francesco De Rubertis serving as board chairman.

The company’s pipeline is powered by multiple platform technologies, targeting a range of dermatological ailments.

Its goal is to transform the dermatological treatment landscape, focusing on conditions such as atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, alopecia areata and chronic spontaneous urticaria.

Alys Pharmaceuticals’ pipeline also includes programmes for less common ailments such as mastocytosis and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, and therapies to prevent skin side effects from cancer treatments.

The company is partnering with establishments including the Institut Gustave Roussy and UMass Chan Medical School to advance its collaborative R&D.

Alys Pharmaceuticals integrates the platforms and assets from six Medicxi companies: Aldena Therapeutics, Graegis Pharmaceuticals, Granular Therapeutics, , Klirna Biotech, Nira Biosciences and Vimela Therapeutics.

With 14 programmes at an active stage, Alys Pharmaceuticals anticipates significant growth from its new platforms, which cover inflammatory conditions, autoimmune ailments and supportive dermatological care for patients with cancer and rare dermatoses.

The company aims to achieve seven to ten clinical proof-of-concept readouts and advance at least one programme to registrational clinical trials in the coming three years.

Medicxi partner and Alys Pharmaceuticals chairman Francesco De Rubertis stated: “We believe that bringing together several asset-centric companies with a phenomenal team will power up Alys to transform innovation in immuno-dermatology.

“Alys manages a broad pipeline of assets with diverse risk profiles and will hugely benefit from this change of scale and facilitated access to capital.”