ALK-Abello dates back to 1923 when Denmark’s first allergen extracts were produced at the pharmacy of the Copenhagen University Hospital. The company was subsequently established as Allergologisk Laboratorium København. The company has since focused on mapping the mechanisms of allergic impact on the immune system in order to develop new and improved allergy therapies. The research focuses on prevention, treatment, and management of allergies, especially hay fever and asthma. In 1925 Juan Abello Pascual founded Abello Pharmaceuticals in Spain.
In 1978, ALK released the first standardized line of products for the treatment of allergies. In 1992 ALK and Abello merged. In the 1990s, ALK was the first company to launch sublingual immunotherapy drops . In recent years, ALK’s research and development strategy has been focused on introducing a range of sublingual immunotherapy tablets . The first, for grass pollen allergy, was launched in 2006, and was followed by SLIT-tablets for ragweed pollen allergy in 2014 and house dust mite allergy in 2016. The company is part-owned by the Lundbeck Foundation, however is also a publicly traded entity.
