Bicycle Therapeutics receives drug discovery funding

Bicycle Therapeutics,had secured a tranched equity financing of £3.75 million to invest in selection of drug candidates using its bicyclic peptide technology platform. Current investors, Atlas Venture, Novartis Venture Fund, SR One and SV Life Sciences were joined by new investor Astellas Venture Management, the venture capital arm of Astellas Pharma.

Bicycle, co-founded by Sir Gregory Winter and Professor Christian Heinis 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 with economics similar 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.

Rolf Günther, CEO, 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. We welcome Astellas Venture Management as a new strategic investor, further endorsing the potential of our platform.”

Sakae Asanuma, President & CEO of Astellas Venture Management LLC, said “We are extremely excited to be part of Bicycle’s promising innovation. Bicycle’s unique proprietary platform technology, which generates a new modality of peptide therapeutics, has enormous potential that can benefit the entire healthcare community.”