Bicycle, AstraZeneca enter into potential $1bn multitarget collaboration

The partnership will identify and develop bicyclic peptides, Bicycles, a novel class of small molecule medicines designed to overcome several limitations of existing drug modalities.

The deal tasks Bicycle with identifying bicyclic peptides against an undisclosed number of targets specified by AstraZeneca.

Bicycle will then pass the responsibility for further development of the candidates to AstraZeneca.

If all the proposed programs enter the market, Bicycle will be eligible for more than $1bn in payments. The deal includes an up-front fee, R&D funding and development, regulatory and commercialization milestones.

AstraZeneca also agreed to pay Bicycle royalties on sales of products that arise from the collaboration.

AstraZeneca innovative medicines and early development biotech unit and global business development executive vice president Menelas Pangalos said: “The bicycle platform expands our drug discovery capabilities and enables us to broaden the range of targets we can prosecute across a range of disease indications.”

“By combining the expertise and strengths of AstraZeneca and Bicycle Therapeutics, we are confident this collaboration will result in clinically important advances for patients suffering from respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.”

Bicycle Therapeutics CEO Kevin Lee said: “This collaboration is a testament to the broad applicability of Bicycles and the robust platform we have created. We look forward to working with AstraZeneca to create novel inhaled therapeutics and targeting agents in these areas of high unmet medical need. ”

Bicycle is developing a new class of medicines for the treatment of oncology and other important diseases based on its bicyclic peptide product platform.