Roche grabs Bicycle Therapeutics’ platform

Under the terms of the strategic agreement, Bicycle Therapeutics plc (Cambridge, UK; Lexington, US)  will receive $30m upfront and could earn milestones cup to $1.7bn from Roche’s US branch Genentech. While the Cambridge (UK)-based company will be responsible for the screening and early pre-clinical development up to candidate selection of so-called Bicycle molecules, Genentech will take the part of selection of immunooncologic targets, clinical development and commercialisation.

"Bicycles represent a novel therapeutic modality and have shown promise as modulators of several types of tumor-killing immune cells," said James Sabry, M.D., Ph.D., global head of Pharma Partnering, Roche. Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained with small molecule scaffolds to form two loops that stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint facilitates target binding with high affinity and selectivity, making Bicycles attractive candidates for drug development.

"Our collaboration with Genentech recognises the potential of Bicycle's differentiated technology, which allows us to specifically direct immune cell stimulators and other payloads to tumours in a highly targeted manner," said Kevin Lee, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics. "In addition, the flexibility of the Bicycle platform enables rapid exploration of structure-activity relationships to fully optimise candidate molecules. We look forward to working closely with Genentech to pioneer the discovery and development of potential new cutting-edge cancer treatments based on Bicycles."

Through the partnership, Bicycle Therapeutics will be able to explore its technology on a wider range of immuno-oncology targets. None of Bicycle's wholly owned oncology and immuno-oncology candidates are included in the collaboration. Bicycle's lead, BT1718, a Bicycle Toxin Conjugate (BTC) that targets MT1-MMP, is being investigated in an ongoing Phase I/IIa clinical trial in collaboration with the Centre for Drug Development of Cancer Research UK. Bicycle is also evaluating BT5528, a second-generation BTC targeting EphA2, in a Phase I/II study.