Bicycle Therapeutics Announces Publication of Its Paper Demonstrating Utility of Bicycles® as Imaging Agents
CAMBRIDGE, England & BOSTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bicycle
Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new class of
therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®)
product platform, today announced publication of its paper in the
February 15th issue of Cancer Research. The publication
demonstrates the potential of Bicycles as a powerful platform
technology for molecular imaging and diagnostics. Future products based
on this technology may help guide improved patient selection and better
assessment of patient responses to treatment with cancer therapeutics.
Bicycle Therapeutics is developing Bicycles as medicines for
cancer and, through collaboration, in other therapeutic areas such as
respiratory, cardiovascular, haematology and infectious diseases. 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. Bicycles
also have attractive pharmacokinetic properties with rapid and extensive
tissue penetration, renal elimination and a tuneable systemic half-life.
The new paper highlights the utility of Bicycles as diagnostic or
imaging agents. The research, conducted in collaboration with the
Division of Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry, German Cancer Research Center
(DKFZ), suggests Bicycles could become effective agents for
molecular imaging to inform the choice of targeted therapy and to
monitor patients’ responses to treatment. Development of peptide-based
imaging agents has been slow due to the lack of availability of suitable
targeting agents with appropriate drug-like properties. The proprietary Bicycle
platform allows for rapid identification of high affinity binders to
novel cancer antigens and their subsequent facile optimisation to
molecules with optimised physicochemical and PK properties. Indeed, this
technology may also allow other therapeutic payloads to be delivered
effectively, such as radiopharmaceuticals.
“While we are focused on developing Bicycles as a novel class of
medicines, we continue to explore their full potential across all
therapeutic applications,” said Nick Keen, Ph.D., Chief Scientific
Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics. “This research underscores the unique
properties of Bicycles, including exquisitely precise tumour
targeting, and reinforces our confidence that our Bicycle
platform will address patient needs that cannot be met by any existing
modality.”
About Bicycle Therapeutics
Bicycle Therapeutics is
developing a unique class of chemically synthesised medicines based on
its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®)
product platform to address therapeutic needs unreachable with existing
treatment modalities. Bicycle’s internal focus is in oncology, where the
company is developing targeted cytotoxics (Bicycle Toxin Conjugates®),
targeted innate immune activators and T-cell modulators for cancers of
high unmet medical need. Bicycles’ small size and
highly selective targeting deliver rapid tumour penetration and
retention while clearance rates and routes of elimination can be tuned
to minimise exposure of healthy tissue and bystander toxicities. The
company’s lead program, BT1718, is being evaluated in a Phase I/IIa
trial in collaboration with Cancer Research UK. The company’s unique
intellectual property is based on the work initiated at the MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K., by the scientific
founders of the company, Sir Greg Winter, a winner of the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry for his pioneering work in phage display of
peptides and antibodies, and Professor Christian Heinis. Bicycle has its
headquarters in Cambridge, U.K., with many key functions and members of
its leadership team located in the biotech hub of Boston, Mass. For more
information, visit www.bicycletherapeutics.com or
follow us on Twitter at @Bicycle_tx.
Contacts
Media:
Ten Bridge Communications
Sara Green
sgreen@tenbridgecommunications.com
+1-617-233-1714
Investors:
Argot Partners
Maeve Conneighton
maeve@argotpartners.com
+1-212-600-1902