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, today announced a collaboration with the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) to use Bicycle technology for the development of novel therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. With DDF, a specialized venture capital fund focused on discovering and developing novel therapies for dementia, Bicycle plans to develop Bicycles to modulate the activity of proteins implicated in the progression of dementia.
“This is a landmark collaboration for Bicycle,” said Kevin Lee, Ph.D., 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 terms of the agreement, Bicycle will identify Bicycles that bind to clinically-validated dementia targets. If promising lead compounds are identified, Bicycle will own the resulting IP and, with DDF, have the option to jointly establish a new company to develop those compounds.
“Bicycle has developed a unique screening platform that has shown on multiple occasions it can help identify differentiated drug candidates for a diverse range of targets that have historically been considered intractable to conventional small-molecule approaches,” said Tetsuyuki Maruyama, Chief Scientific Advisor at DDF. “We are delighted to be working with the Bicycle team to apply this unique technology to some of the most challenging CNS diseases.”
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.
About the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF)
The DDF is a venture
capital fund which invests in projects and companies to discover and
develop novel, effective disease-modifying therapeutics for dementia.
Seven leading pharmaceutical companies (Biogen, Eli Lilly and Company,
GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Otsuka (Astex), Pfizer and Takeda), AARP, Aegon,
Bill Gates, British Patient Capital, NFL Players Association, Quest
Diagnostics, UnitedHealth Group, the UK’s Department of Health and
Social Care and charity Alzheimer’s Research UK have invested in the DDF
to date. Heads of Neuroscience and R&D represent these strategic
investors on the DDF Scientific Advisory Board and work closely with
SV’s dedicated team of neuroscientists and experts to identify and
evaluate novel approaches for the treatment of dementia. SV won the bid
to become Manager in a competitive selection process held in 2015. www.theddfund.com
