Bicycle Therapeutics secures £3.75m in finance
Supported by new investor Astellas Venture Management
Bicycle Therapeutics, a next generation biotherapeutics company based in Cambridge, UK has secured a tranched equity financing of £3.75m to invest in a selection of drug candidates using its bicyclic peptide technology. New investor Astellas Venture Management, the venture capital arm of Astellas Pharma has joined Atlas Venture, Novartis Venture Fund, SR One and SV Life Sciences.
Bicycle has developed a proprietary bicyclic peptide technology that enables the discovery of a new class of drug candidates with antibody-like selectivity and specificity that can be manufactured at a similar cost to new chemical entities. The company is applying the technology to drug discovery projects in oncology, metabolic and inflammatory diseases and will also make the platform accessible for collaborative discovery with pharma partners.
This financing marks our transition from technology development to drug discovery
Bicycle Therapeutics’ CEO Rolf Günther said: ‘This financing marks our transition from technology development to drug discovery, using our bicyclic peptide libraries, high throughput screening and lead optimisation technology. We are now expanding our discovery efforts to address multiple drug target classes.’
Sakae Asanuma, president and CEO of Astellas Venture Management, added ‘Bicycle’s unique proprietary platform technology, which generates a new modality of peptide therapeutics, has enormous potential that can benefit the entire healthcare community.’
Bicycle technology is based on discoveries made at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge by co-founders Professor Christian Heinis and Sir Gregory Winter, which have been developed into a robust technology platform under the leadership of Bicycle Therapeutics’ CSO Dr John Tite.
