After raising $62M, New Haven biotech Allyx Therapeutics advances experimental Alzheimer’s drug

Hartford Business Journal – Tuesday, June 16, 2026
By David Krechevsky

More than seven years of development, over $60 million in funding and a series of early clinical studies have led to this: Allyx Therapeutics is preparing for what may be the most consequential test in the New Haven-based biotech startup’s history.

The Yale University spinout expects to launch a Phase 2 clinical trial in Australia later this year for an experimental oral therapy known as ALX-001, which is designed to slow and potentially even reverse some of the damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

Success in the study could help determine whether the company advances to larger, late-stage trials and moves a step closer to commercial development.

“We’re one of the leaders in creating next-generation therapies for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Stephen Bloch, the company’s CEO and one of three co-founders. “We’re ready to test this in patients and try to get signals around efficacy that would allow us to scale up to larger pivotal trials.”

Lean approach

Founded in 2018, Allyx grew out of Alzheimer’s research conducted by Yale neurologist Dr. Stephen Strittmatter.

Strittmatter teamed with Bloch, a biotech entrepreneur, and scientist-turned-entrepreneur Timothy Siegert to launch Allyx after securing rights to ALX-001, a compound originally developed by Bristol Myers Squibb.

Since then, Allyx has operated with a remarkably small staff. The company has just three employees and relies heavily on consultants and contract research organizations to handle its manufacturing operations, regulatory work and clinical trials.

That lean approach has helped the company stretch both investor dollars and grant funding. Siegert said Allyx has received nearly $12 million in grants from organizations including the National Institutes of Health and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, while Yale researchers secured an additional $13 million in grant support.

The company also recently received a $1.1 million award from the Alzheimer’s Association.

In May, Allyx closed a $26.5 million financing round that company leaders say provides enough capital to conduct and complete the Phase 2 study.

“That was really the goal of the financing,” said Bloch, who is also a general partner at Canaan Partners, a venture capital firm with a Stamford office that invests in healthcare and technology startups. “To have enough resources to get the information we need from our Phase 2 clinical trial.”

The funding round attracted support from existing backers, including Bristol Myers Squibb, as well as Alzheimer’s-focused investors and nonprofit organizations.

The capital infusion comes as researchers and drugmakers continue searching for more effective Alzheimer’s treatments. An estimated 7.2 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s dementia, a figure projected to nearly double by 2060, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

A different strategy

Allyx is entering a competitive Alzheimer’s treatment market, but company officials believe their approach sets the drug apart from recently approved therapies.

Several Alzheimer’s drugs, including Leqembi and Kisunla, focus on removing amyloid plaques from the brain, which many scientists believe play a role in the disease. While the treatments have been shown to slow cognitive decline in some patients, questions remain about their benefits, costs and potential side effects.

Allyx is pursuing a different strategy.

Rather than targeting plaque directly, the company is developing a therapy designed to protect brain cells and the connections between them from damage associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The treatment is being developed as a pill, unlike some recently approved Alzheimer’s therapies that are administered through intravenous infusions.

“Most have focused on clearing amyloid plaque from the brain,” Siegert said. “We’re not focused on that. We’re focused on neuronal protection and synapse protection.”

Company officials believe the strategy could have applications beyond Alzheimer’s disease.

They say the same underlying disease processes may contribute to other neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia. Allyx already has a Phase 1 Parkinson’s study underway and sees Alzheimer’s as the first of several neurodegenerative diseases it may eventually target.

Phase 2 trial

A series of early-stage studies has bolstered the company’s confidence.

In late 2025, Allyx reported that a Phase 1b study in Alzheimer’s patients found ALX-001 to be safe and well tolerated, with no serious adverse events. The study also suggested the drug was reaching its intended target in the brain.

The Phase 2 trial is expected to begin in the fourth quarter and will primarily be conducted in Australia, where company executives said studies can often be launched more quickly and at lower cost than in the United States.

The trial is expected to run approximately three years from first patient enrollment through final data collection.

Researchers will evaluate whether patients show measurable improvements and look for additional evidence that the drug may be slowing progression of the disease.

Success, however, is far from guaranteed.

Alzheimer’s drug development remains one of the most challenging areas in biopharmaceutical research, with studies showing that many experimental therapies fail in mid- or late-stage trials. For example, a 2021 University of Nevada, Las Vegas analysis of more than 1,000 Alzheimer’s clinical trials found a 95% failure rate among drug candidates, including 36 late-stage failures.

That same study found that just five drugs had received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to treat symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease since 1995.

Even if the upcoming trial succeeds, Allyx is unlikely to commercialize the drug on its own. Bloch said the company would likely seek a partnership with a major pharmaceutical company, pursue an initial public offering or explore other strategic options to fund larger, later-stage trials.

Bringing ALX-001 through final clinical testing and regulatory approval could require roughly $1 billion in additional capital, he said.

“I always kind of joke about it,” Bloch said. A startup “can be like lighting money on fire, because you know you’re so far away from profits and you have to be very comfortable with the ambiguity and the risk.”

Despite that, he says the risks are outweighed by the potential rewards that have nothing to do with money.

“Thirty-five percent of people over the age of 80 have some form of dementia, namely Alzheimer’s,” Bloch said. “We do it because we love the industry and the people around it, … and it’s very satisfying to see a drug come to market or get approved and be able to help people.”

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