Alder Therapeutics

What Alder Therapeutics does

Alder Therapeutics AB is a virtual preclinical-stage biotechnology company founded in 2022 and headquartered in Solna, Sweden, that develops allogeneic pluripotent stem cell (PSC) therapies for high-unmet-need indications. The company's pipeline comprises two core programs: ALD01, a retinal cell therapy delivering photoreceptor progenitors for retinitis pigmentosa, and ALD02, a cardiac progenitor cell therapy for heart failure. Both indications represent multibillion-dollar commercial opportunities and large patient populations (retinitis pigmentosa affects 1 in 4,000 people globally; heart failure is described as the most common cause of death worldwide).

The underlying technology is a proprietary laminin-based differentiation platform, exclusively licensed from Duke-NUS Medical School and BioLamina AB in January 2023, that enables efficient and reproducible generation of the target cell types from human PSCs. The company layers on its proprietary AlderEdge drug-development philosophy, which embeds manufacturing scalability, regulatory considerations, and commercial viability assessment into program design from inception. Manufacturing has been transferred to a CDMO for both ALD01 and ALD02, and preclinical proof-of-concept has been generated in mouse, rabbit, pig, and non-human primate models. The company's IP is protected by patents granted in the US and Singapore covering the photoreceptor differentiation method. Alder has secured early regulatory engagement through an EMA ITF meeting and US FDA INTERACT meeting, with both programs classified as ATMPs by EMA.

Alder has no commercial revenue and is pre-revenue. Its business model is built on advancing ALD01 through Phase I/IIa trials by 2026 and ALD02 to GLP toxicology, with the intended long-term revenue model being commercialization of allogeneic cell therapy products and/or out-licensing/strategic partnering with large pharma. The company is currently raising €22–25M to finance this clinical-stage transition, having previously closed a €3M seed round in September 2022 co-led by Flerie Invest and Linc AB. The GTM motion is enterprise and investor-focused: scientific publication, regulatory engagement, conference participation, and partnering with large pharma rather than traditional product sales. Customers in the therapeutic sense are patients with retinitis pigmentosa and heart failure in future commercial markets; institutional customers today are limited to two cornerstone life-science investors (Flerie and Linc, each at 29% post-seed ownership).

Name

Alder Therapeutics

Legal name

Alder Therapeutics AB

Website

https://aldertx.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Alder Therapeutics is a virtual preclinical-stage Swedish biotech developing allogeneic pluripotent stem cell therapies — ALD01 for retinitis pigmentosa and ALD02 for heart failure — using proprietary laminin-based differentiation technology licensed from Duke-NUS and BioLamina, targeting multibillion-dollar indication markets.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Regenerative Medicine

NAICS

Biological Product (except Diagnostic) Manufacturing (325414)

SIC

Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836)

akta.pro primary industry

Stem Cell Therapies (MSC/iPSC/HSC-derived) (HLAAABAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cell Therapy Developers (Allogeneic/Off-the-shelf) (HLAAABAB), Stem Cell–Based Regenerative Therapies (HLAAAGAA), Rare Ophthalmology Disorder Therapies (HLAIAIAK)

Keywords

• Allogeneic cell therapy
• Stem cell therapy
• Regenerative medicine
• Pluripotent stem cells
• Cell therapy development

Headquarters

HQ city

Solna

HQ country

Sweden

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Cell therapy product commercialization: Pre-revenue preclinical-stage company developing allogeneic stem cell therapies. The intended revenue model is through successful clinical development and commercialization of ALD01 (retinitis pigmentosa) and ALD02 (heart failure), targeting high-unmet-need indications with multibillion USD commercial opportunities. Currently raising funding to advance programs through clinical trials.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Alder Therapeutics develops allogeneic pluripotent stem cell (PSC) therapies, with two lead preclinical programs: ALD01, a photoreceptor progenitor cell therapy for Retinitis Pigmentosa, and ALD02, a cardiac progenitor cell therapy for heart failure. The company uses a proprietary laminin-based differentiation platform licensed from Duke-NUS and BioLamina, applied through its AlderEdge development philosophy that integrates manufacturing scalability and commercial planning from program inception.

Product overview

Alder Therapeutics is developing two allogeneic stem cell therapy products: ALD01, a retinal cell therapy for Retinitis Pigmentosa, and ALD02, a cardiac cell therapy for heart failure. Both therapies are progressing through preclinical development using the company's AlderEdge platform methodology, which provides a structured approach to de-risking cell therapy development by embedding commercial considerations and scalable manufacturing from the outset. The company licenses IP from Duke-NUS and BioLamina for these programs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AlderEdge: A unique drug development philosophy that de-risks the development of cell therapies by keeping the commercial product in mind from the start.

Products and services

• ALD01

Quantifiable outcome

• ALD01: >40% mfERG improvement four weeks post-transplantation in non-human primate models
• +6 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• Duke-NUS Medical School (Singapore)coreTechnology or Integration · 17 January 2023In two separate exclusive license agreements in January 2023, Alder secured access to Intellectual Property and know-how for two state-of-the-art methods to manufacture retinal and cardiac cell therapeutic products from Duke-NUS. The retinal cell program was licensed from Duke-NUS, and the cardiac cell program was licensed from Duke-NUS and BioLamina AB. The methods were developed by Professor Karl Tryggvason's research group at Duke-NUS, with Assistant Professor Tay Hwee Goon leading retinal cell research and Assistant Professor Lynn Yap leading cardiac research.
• BioLamina AB (Sweden)coreTechnology or Integration · 17 January 2023BioLamina co-licensed the cardiac cell program alongside Duke-NUS. BioLamina AB is a Swedish biotechnology company whose flagship products are biorelevant human recombinant laminin isoforms (Biolaminin), defined cell culture matrices that imitate natural cell-matrix interactions for stem cell and regenerative medicine applications. CEO Veronica Byfield Sköld commented on the partnership.
• CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization)coreOthersManufacturing processes for both ALD01 and ALD02 have been successfully transferred to a CDMO. The company uses its AlderEdge approach to work with external manufacturing partners for cell therapy production.
• Professor Dominik Fischer (Oxford Eye Hospital / University of Oxford)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerScientific Advisor — Ophthalmic Surgeon at Oxford Eye Hospital and full Professor of Ophthalmology at University of Oxford. Serves on advisory boards of patient advocacy groups, biotech and pharmaceutical industries, and has been expert advisor to governmental regulators. Chief Investigator of the first global post-approval safety study for ocular gene therapy.
• Dr Gerard Boink (Amsterdam UMC Heart Centre)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerScientific Advisor — Cardiologist at Amsterdam UMC Heart Centre who directs a translational cell and gene therapy group focused on novel arrhythmia treatments. Co-founded PacingCure B.V. for biological pacemakers. Represents Amsterdam Cardiovascular Sciences as translational valorization officer. ERC Starting Grant and EIC Pathfinder/Transition Grant recipient.
• Professor Anders Kvanta (Karolinska Institute / St. Erik Eye Hospital)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerScientific Advisor — Professor in Ophthalmology at Karolinska Institute and Senior Consultant in Vitreoretinal Surgery at St. Erik Eye Hospital. Principal investigator in clinical gene therapy and stem-cell based projects on retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. Published over 90 original studies on translational retinal research.
• Dr. Lynn Yap (Nanyang Technological University / National Heart Research Institute Singapore)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerScientific Co-Founder and Assistant Professor at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at NTU and National Heart Research Institute Singapore. Co-inventor of the laminin platform technology underpinning Alder's cell therapy for heart failure (ALD02). Principal investigator and director of a regenerative cardiology and cardiometabolic medicine group.
• Dr. Hwee Goon Tay (DUKE-NUS Medical School, Singapore)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerScientific Co-Founder and Assistant Professor at Centre for Vision Research in DUKE-NUS Medical School. Co-inventor of the innovative photoreceptor differentiation method at the heart of Alder's retinitis pigmentosa therapy (ALD01). Awarded NMRC OF-YIRG and NRF CRP funding for retinal cell therapy innovation.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• BlueRock Therapeutics: Pioneer in allogeneic iPSC-derived cell therapies, with a leading program in cardiac cell therapy for heart failure. Acquired by Bayer for up to $1B, making it the most directly comparable competitor to Alder's ALD02 cardiac program.
• Fate Therapeutics: Clinical-stage biotech developing allogeneic, iPSC-derived cell therapies using engineered NK and T-cell platforms. Directly comparable in its use of pluripotent stem cell platforms for off-the-shelf therapeutic products.
• Lineage Cell Therapeutics: Clinical-stage allogeneic cell therapy company developing OpRegen for retinal diseases including RP/AMD using pluripotent stem cell-derived RPE cells. Directly comparable retinal indication with overlapping patient populations to Alder's ALD01.
• jCyte: Clinical-stage cell therapy company developing jCell, an allogeneic retinal progenitor cell therapy for retinitis pigmentosa. Directly competes with Alder's ALD01 in the same patient population with a similar cell-replacement approach.
• Heartseed Inc. Japanese clinical-stage biotech developing HS-001, an allogeneic iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte cell therapy for heart failure. The most direct geographic and mechanistic competitor to Alder's ALD02 cardiac program.
• ReNeuron Group: UK-based clinical-stage cell therapy company developing hRPC stem cell therapy for retinitis pigmentosa. Direct competitor to ALD01 in retinal cell therapy, with longer clinical history but different cell source.

Emerging players

• Aspen Neuroscience: Clinical-stage company developing autologous iPSC-derived dopaminergic neuron cell therapies for Parkinson's disease. Comparable in its use of pluripotent stem cell platforms and personalized cell therapy manufacturing.
• TreeFrog Therapeutics: French biotech with proprietary C-Stem technology for mass-production of iPSC-derived cell therapies. Comparable as a stem cell manufacturing platform peer enabling allogeneic cell therapy developers including Alder.

Broad incumbents

• Mesoblast: Commercial-stage leader in allogeneic cellular medicines, including remestemcel-L for pediatric SR-aGvHD. Represents the commercial end-state benchmark for allogeneic cell therapy developers like Alder.

Others

• BioLamina AB: Swedish supplier of Biolaminin recombinant laminin substrates used in Alder's differentiation protocols and a co-licensor of Alder's cardiac IP. Key enabling technology partner and supplier for Alder's platform.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/alder-therapeutics

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Alder Therapeutics