Bicycle Therapeutics will leverage its in-house phage platform to discover bicyclic peptide (Bicycle) to be developed into BRCs, while Novartis will carry out further development, manufacture and commercialisation of the Bicycle-based medicines

novartis-campus-forum-1-banting-1-fabrikstrasse

Novartis Campus, Forum 1, Banting 1 and Fabrikstrasse. (Credit: Novartis AG)

Novartis and UK-based Bicycle Therapeutics have entered into a strategic collaboration to develop, manufacture and market bicyclic peptide (Bicycle) radio-conjugates (BRCs) for multiple oncology targets, mutually agreed by the parties.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bicycle Therapeutics will leverage its in-house phage platform to discover Bicycles to be developed into BRCs.

Novartis will carry out further development, manufacture and commercialisation of the BRCs, along with funding all pre-clinical and clinical development and commercialisation activities.

Bicycle will receive an upfront payment of $50m and is eligible for milestone payments of up to $1.7bn, in addition to tiered royalties on Bicycle-based medicines.

Bicycle Therapeutics chief executive officer Kevin Lee said: “This collaboration builds on the groundbreaking clinical work we have been doing in the toxin conjugate field and provides new and additional validation for this unique technology.

“We look forward to working closely with Novartis to pioneer the discovery and development of potential new cutting-edge radiopharmaceutical cancer treatments based on Bicycles.

“We believe the properties of Bicycles make them well suited for the development of precision-guided radiopharmaceuticals and represent the next leg in the application of our proprietary discovery platform in oncology.”

Based in Cambridge, UK, Bicycle is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel class of medicines, dubbed Bicycles, to treat diseases not covered by existing therapeutics.

Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained with small molecule scaffolds, which form two loops to stabilise their structural geometry.

This constraint facilitates target binding with high affinity and selectivity, making Bicycles attractive candidates for drug development.

Bicycle is developing second-generation Bicycle Toxin Conjugate (BTCs) BT5528 and BT8009, along with a validated tumour antigen, in its own Phase 1/2 trials.

In addition, the company is evaluating BT1718, its BTC that targets MT1-MMP, in an ongoing Phase 1/2a clinical trial, supported by the Cancer Research UK Centre for Drug Development.