Bicycle Therapeutics has obtained a global licence from Pepscan to utilise its proprietary constrained peptide chemistry technology. The parties propose to closely collaborate on the development of structurally modified peptides that will act as a novel class of therapeutic molecules.
Pepscan’s proprietary technology allows the creation of constrained peptides covalently linked to an organochemical scaffold. Bicycle Therapeutics applies powerful biological selection techniques in combination with the Pepscan technology to identify and optimise chemically constrained cyclic peptides with high target specificity and binding affinities.
These peptides could be regarded as mini-antibodies with covalent organic cores that are also stable to unfolding and to the action of proteases. As such they should overcome the weaknesses of previous generations of peptide-based therapeutics and combine the best features of biological and small molecular weight drugs.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
John Tite, CEO of Bicycle Therapeutics, said: “We are delighted to have entered into this relationship with Pepscan, who are world leaders in the field of peptide mimetics. We believe that this partnership will enable Bicycle Therapeutics to generate molecules which are truly differentiated. The combination of biology and chemistry will enable us to create and explore new levels of molecular diversity.”
Joost van Bree, CEO of Pepscan, said: “We are very excited about this new collaboration, since it clearly demonstrates that our proprietary constrained peptide technology can be applied to develop a whole new and promising class of therapeutic molecules.”