Bicycle Therapeutics rides up as it pens up to $1.7 billion I-O deal

UK-based biotech Bicycle Therapeutics (Nasdaq: BCYC) saw its shares leap 7.46% to $15.71 by mid-morning US trading today, having risen as much as 19%, after it said it has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Swiss pharma giant Roche’s (ROG: SIX) Genentech subsidiary, a to discover, develop and commercialize novel Bicycle-based immuno-oncology (I-O) therapies.

By entering into this early discovery collaboration with Genentech, Bicycle will be exploring its technology on a wider range of I-O targets, combining the expertise of both companies. Bicycle brings its proprietary discovery platform, which allows rapid screening of novel targets to identify Bicycles and the ability to readily conjugate these together to create novel molecules that may overcome the potential limitations of other modalities. Genentech brings to the collaboration its knowledge of immuno-oncology drug discovery and emerging target biology, as well as its development and commercialization expertise.

This adds to collaborations that Bicycle has, including with UK pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN), Belgium’s ThromboGenics (Euronext Brussels: THR) and Bioverativ (Nasdaq: BIVV).