CAMBRIDGE, England & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bicycle Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) product platform, and Oxurion today announced full enrollment of Oxurion’s Phase I trial designed to evaluate the safety of a single injection of THR-149, a novel Bicycle-based plasma kallikrein (PKal) inhibitor. Activation of the PKal enzyme has been shown to induce retinal vascular permeability, microaneurysm and inflammation.
“Patients with DME have elevated levels of PKal,” said Patrik De Haes, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Oxurion. “Our goal in this Phase I trial is to evaluate the safety of a single intravitreal injection of THR-149, a novel Bicycle-based PKal inhibitor, in subjects with visual impairment due to DME. Enrolling these patients is the first step to understanding whether we can inhibit PKal with Bicycle’s novel bicyclic peptides.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Oxurion (formerly ThromboGenics) has an exclusive license to undertake preclinical and clinical development, as well as subsequent commercialization, of a specified drug candidate. In return, Bicycle receives development milestone payments and royalties on sales of products resulting from the collaboration.
“Bicycles offer a differentiated approach to a range of debilitating diseases, and we are delighted to see the progress Oxurion has made in successfully completing the enrollment of the first Bicycle-based therapeutic for a Phase I study,” said Kevin Lee, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics. “THR-149, together with Bicycle’s own Bicycle Toxin Conjugate for oncology, BT1718, represent the first of multiple initiatives we are advancing to bring this unique therapeutic modality to patients with substantial unmet medical needs.”
About Bicycle Therapeutics
Bicycle Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel class of medicines, referred to as Bicycles®, for diseases that are underserved by existing therapeutics. Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained to form two loops that stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint is designed to confer high affinity and selectivity, and the relatively large surface area presented by the molecule allows targets to be drugged that have historically been intractable to non-biological approaches. We have a novel and proprietary phage display screening platform that we use to identify Bicycles in an efficient manner. Our initial internal programs are focused on oncology indications with high unmet medical need. Our lead product candidate, BT1718, is a Bicycle Toxin Conjugate being investigated for safety, tolerability and efficacy in an ongoing Phase I/IIa clinical trial in collaboration with, and fully funded by, the Centre for Drug Development of Cancer Research UK. Bicycle was founded in 2009 as a result of innovative science conducted by Sir Greg Winter and Professor Christian Heinis. Sir Greg Winter is a pioneer in monoclonal antibodies; in 2018, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in chemistry for the invention of the technology underpinning our proprietary phage display screening platform that we use to identify Bicycles. Bicycle is headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., with many key functions and members of its leadership team located near the biotech hub of Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, visit BicycleTherapeutics.com, connect with us on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter at @Bicycle_tx.
