The company focuses on developing a novel class of drugs called Bicycles. Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained to form two loops—hence “bi” cycles—that stabilize their structural geometry.
Bicycle Therapeutics announced the pricing of its initial public offering (IPO), offering 4,333,333 shares at an IPO price of $14 per share. The company expects to raise about $60.6 million. It is trading on the Nasdaq under the BCYC ticker symbol.
The company focuses on developing a novel class of drugs called Bicycles. Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained to form two loops—hence “bi” cycles—that stabilize their structural geometry.
The company was founded in 2009 based on science coming out of the laboratory of Sir Greg Winter, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018 for his work in phage display. Phages are viruses that infect bacteria. The company is co-headquartered in Lexington, Mass. and Cambridge, UK.
On May 7, Bicycle announced a collaboration with the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) to use Bicycle technology to develop novel drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. DDF is a specialized venture capital fund focused on discovering and developing therapies for dementia.
“This is a landmark collaboration for Bicycle,” stated Kevin Lee, chief executive officer of Bicycle Therapeutics. “Fifty million people worldwide live with dementia, yet there is no cure for these terrible diseases. Despite the huge burden of these illnesses on individuals, families and society, conventional approaches have so far provided limited benefit. We believe our Bicycles bring a fresh approach to this area, and we are thrilled to work with DDF to apply our proprietary technology to the potential treatment of dementia.”
Under the collaboration, Bicycle will identify Bicycles that bind to clinically-validated dementia targets. If any good compounds are identified, Bicycle will own the resulting intellectual property. Bicycle and DDF will have the option to found a new company together to develop those compounds.
The company’s phage display screening platform is used to identify Bicycles efficiently. Its internal programs focus on cancer. Its lead product candidate is BT1718, a Bicycle Toxin Conjugate in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial funded by the Centre for Drug Development of Cancer Research UK.
BT1718 is being studied for tumors that express membrane Type 1 matrix metalloprotease. The bicycle attaches to the cancer cells and the toxin cleaves from the bicycle and kills the tumor cells. Preliminary data from the trial is expected in the second half of this year.
The company’s other pipeline candidates are BT5528 and BT8009, also for oncology indications.
At the end of 2018, Bicycle reported collaboration revenues of $7.14 million. The net loss was $16.3 million for the year, not unusual as operating expenses grew as the company moved its compounds into the clinic.
The company plans to use between $35 million and $40 million of the funds raised for Phase II and Phase III trials of BT1718. It also will use funds to advance its preclinical compounds into the clinic.
Prior to the IPO, the company had raised about $116 million. In addition to the DDF collaboration, Bicycle Therapeutics has cut deals with AstraZeneca to focus on respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, with Bioverativ on hemophilia drugs, and with Oxurion on ophthalmology therapeutics.
