About CatalYm

CatalYm is a spin-out of the Wurzburg University. The research group of Prof. Dr. Jörg Wischhusen has provided the most important results for the foundation of CatalYm. On that basis, CatalYm received seed-financing in 2016. With Series A financing provided by Venture Capital firms Forbion Capital Partners and BioGeneration Ventures CatalYm moved from Wurzburg to the IZB in Martinsried in 2018. At the IZB, CatalYm has its own laboratories and office space and currently has nearly 20 highly qualified employees. Those people are covering all areas of expertise needed to do drug development. We also intensely work with consultants and external experts. Our drug CTL-002 for the neutralization of GDF-15 is set to undergo first testing in late stage cancer patients before end of 2020. At the same time, additional projects are on their way.

What is your motivation?

We are driven by the objective to develop substantially improved therapeutic options for cancer patients. Although significant progress has been achieved in recent years, many patients with late stage disease have little or no options for further treatment. We base our drug developments on latest research and international collaborations with top researchers. CatalYm is specialist in the field of innovative immune therapies and develops approaches that improve the battle of the patient’s own immune system against the cancer. We target a molecular factor called GDF-15. There is no approved drug that influences this factor so far. Our drug candidate interferes with the mechanism that regulate immune cell infiltration into tumors and that are both involved in the activation of such immune cells against cancer cells and the killing of tumor cells by those immune cells.