Akthelia is an preclinical stage pharmaceutical company founded by four eminent professors, two from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and two from the University of Iceland. The company is focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics which enhance and deploy the body’s own innate microbial defence mechanisms to combat debilitating diseases. This novel mechanism of action elucidated by Akthelia, underpins the development of the Company’s pharmaceutical actives.

Akthelia’s founders were the first to isolate and characterise the only currently identified host defense peptide of the cathelicidin family in humans, LL-37, and have elucidated factors and pathways that control the expression and regulation of host defense peptides in ‘in vitro’ cell systems, animal models and humans. These results constitute the scientific basis of Akthelia’s business proposition.

The company has been funded by pre-seed equity and grants. Latest funding round was in 2021 and was angel-led by private investors with a background in pharma. NSA Ventures, a government owned Icelandic early stage VC investor has participated in 2 pre-seed rounds. Furthermore Akthelia and its founders have received several grants from RANNÍS, the Icelandic Centre of Research and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research.

Akthelia's actives are rigidly patent protected, the company's intellectual property advisers are Mewburn Ellis.

Akthelia is based in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Akthelia ehf

Grandagarði 16
101 Reykjavik
Iceland