Some children are called butterfly children. Their skin is as fragile as a butterfly's wing — it blisters, tears and wounds at the lightest touch. The cause is Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), a rare, lifelong and sometimes fatal genetic skin disease. For its most common form, EB Simplex, there is still no approved treatment that addresses why the skin fails. For a generation, these children have been given dressings and pain relief — not treatment.

Mariposa Therapeutics exists to change that.

We are a UK biotechnology company developing disease-modifying therapeutics for keratin-related skin diseases — conditions rooted in faults in keratin, the structural protein that gives skin its strength. In EB Simplex, mutations in keratin 5 and 14 cause the skin's internal scaffolding to collapse, leaving it unable to withstand ordinary touch.

Our lead candidate, MP5219, is a topical small molecule designed to switch on the body's own compensatory keratins and rebuild that scaffolding — restoring skin integrity rather than only dressing its wounds. Because it acts on the keratin pathway rather than one defect, it is designed to be mutation-agnostic: a single medicine for the broadest EB Simplex population, whichever mutation a patient carries. Don't repair the broken keratin. Give the skin a second one.

EB Simplex is where we start, not where the science ends. The same keratin biology underlies a wider family of skin conditions, and the discovery platform behind MP5219 lets us find molecules that modulate keratins with precision — with programmes extending toward pachyonychia congenita, psoriasis and wound healing.

We are scientists, drug developers and clinicians, working alongside the patients, families and organisations who have carried this cause for decades.

Healing that goes beyond skin deep.


Mariposa Therapeutics

Org chart

Teams

Offices

Mariposa Therapeutics

Org chart

Teams

Offices

Related companies