Multi-target collaboration across respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases for Bicycle Therapeutics

Privately-held UK firm biotech Bicycle Therapeutics, which is pioneering a new class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle) product platform, has entered into a collaboration for the identification and development of bicyclic peptides for the treatment of respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, with Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN).

Bicycles, a novel class of small molecule medicines, are designed to overcome many of the limitations of existing drug modalities. They exhibit the affinity and exquisite target specificity usually associated with antibodies but in a small molecule format enabling rapid tissue penetration and flexible routes of administration.

Deal could be worth more than $1 billion