About LyotekFounded 2022

A trading company that became a laboratory

Lyotek AG is a Swiss company founded in 2022. In its laboratory in Allschwil, near Basel, it synthesises, tests, freeze-dries and fills lyophilised research peptides, and supplies them to research organisations through one exclusive distributor, which serves more than 170 countries.

How a trading company ended up making its own peptides

Lyotek started in Switzerland in 2022 with three people and a narrow idea: source research chemicals carefully and sell them to laboratories that needed them quickly. We bought from manufacturers, checked what we could, and shipped.

The checking turned out to be the whole job. A certificate would name a lot that matched nothing in the box. A second order of the same compound would behave differently from the first, and the paperwork could not tell us why. When a customer asked a plain question about a batch, too often we had no answer we could stand behind.

So in 2023 we stopped buying peptides and began making them. It took two years to bring synthesis, analysis, freeze-drying and filling into one building and one quality system, and in 2025 we released the first lot with our own name on the label.

We still think of ourselves as a small company. The people who release a lot sit a corridor away from the people who pack it, and the managing director still reads the complaints. We would like to keep it that way for as long as we can.

Matthias Reber, Elena Marti and Jonas Haefeli, founders

2022 to 2026

How the company moved from trading to manufacturing.

2022
- Lyotek AG is registered in Switzerland
  Three founders, one rented office and a trading licence for research chemicals.
2023
- The decision to manufacture
  Too many certificates could not be traced back to a lot, so the founders decide to make the peptides themselves. A synthesis bench and a preparative column are commissioned, and the first crude peptide is made and purified on site.
2024
- The analytical laboratory opens
  HPLC and pH methods are written and validated next door to synthesis, so every lot is measured where it was made.
- Lyophilisation and fill line
  A freeze dryer and a filling line go into a classified cleanroom. Vials are filled, stoppered and crimped under one roof.
2025
- One quality system
  Procedures, batch records and the release decision are written into a single system.
- The first released lot
  The first lot leaves under the Lyotek label, with its certificate of analysis packed in the same box.
- One exclusive distributor
  Lyotek appoints a single exclusive distributor on written terms. The laboratory keeps to manufacturing and leaves selling to it.
2026
- More than 170 countries
  Through its exclusive distributor, Lyotek vials now reach research groups in more than 170 countries.
- 25 products, 20 compounds
  The catalogue lists 19 single-compound vials, 3 blends and 3 consumables, each with its own technical sheet.
- Five facility certificates
  Certification Assurance International issues the laboratory five certificates on 27 October 2026, for cGMP, ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 17025, ISO 14644-1 and GDP. All of them are published in full.

The founders

Three people who were tired of certificates nobody could stand behind, and who still work in the building every day.

Matthias Reber
Co-founder, managing director
Matthias spent twelve years buying laboratory materials for research groups in Zurich and Basel. He started Lyotek to fix the part of that job he liked least, and he still reads every complaint himself.
Elena Marti
Co-founder, head of manufacturing
Elena is a peptide chemist who ran solid-phase synthesis for a contract manufacturer before Lyotek. She laid out the synthesis room and the fill line, and no change goes into either without her signature.
Jonas Haefeli
Co-founder, head of analytics
Jonas set up the analytical laboratory in what had been an empty storeroom. He wrote the HPLC methods it still runs and chairs the meeting where each lot is released or held.

The people who run the laboratory

The team covers synthesis, analytics, quality, regulatory work and the hand-over to our distributor. It is small, so most of them answer their own mail.

Alice Brunner
Quality and compliance lead
Keeps the quality system, answers audits and questionnaires, and owns every complaint until it is closed.
Derek Amstutz
Head of distribution
Looks after the agreement with our exclusive distributor, and is the first call for a country it does not yet cover.
Nadia Okafor
Analytical chemist
Runs HPLC and pH on every lot and drafts its certificate of analysis.
Tomás Varga
Synthesis chemist
Assembles and purifies peptides on the synthesis bench.
Samuel Frei
Lyophilisation and fill
Runs the freeze dryer and the filling line, from loading the trays to crimping the caps.
Lea Zimmermann
Regulatory affairs
Keeps labels and safety data sheets right for every presentation.
Marco Bianchi
Release logistics
Packs released lots and books their transport to our distributor.
Ines Graf
Customer support
Answers the support box and passes lot questions to the person who can settle them.