October 14, 2014
By Krystle Vermes, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Bicycle Therapeutics, which focuses on creating first-in-class bicyclic peptides, announced today that it has raised $32 million in equity financing for the clinical development of drug candidates in oncology from existing investors Atlas Venture, Novartis Venture Fund, SR One, SV Life Sciences and Astellas Venture Management.
Bicycle Therapeutics’ bicyclic peptide technology promotes a new class of drug candidates, which are 100-fold smaller than antibodies and manufactured using simple chemical synthesis.
“This second round financing enables us to advance our BDC candidates to clinical development in cancer indications,” said Andrew Sandham, chairman of Bicycle Therapeutics. “We also have the capacity to work collaboratively with pharma partners on other targets and indications in many diseases.”
The latest financing round will support the clinical development of bicycle-drug conjugates that are highly selective to tumor-specific targets. Bicycle Therapeutics has a wide range of technology that has applicability in oncology, respiratory, inflammatory and ophthalmology disease.
“Bicycle technology was invented by our founders, Sir Gregory Winter and Professor Christian Heinis,” said Rolf Gunther, CEO of Bicycle Therapeutics, in a statement. “We have developed the platform for rapid discovery and optimization of drug candidates, and are delighted that we are now able to demonstrate clinical utility of this exciting new class of molecules.”
The Initial Push for Bicyclic Peptides
Bicycle Therapeutics most significant equity financing came in December 2012 when it secured more than $5 million from Atlas Venture and the Novartis Venture Fund to further develop projects in oncology, metabolic and inflammatory diseases.
“This financing marks our transition from technology development to drug discovery, using our bicyclic peptide libraries, high throughput screening and lead optimization technology,” said Gunther, following the news in 2012. “We are now expanding our discovery efforts to address multiple drug target classes. We welcome Astellas Venture Management as a new strategic investor, further endorsing the potential of our platform.“
