Business Weekly | By Tony Quested
20 Feb 2024
Cambridge biopharma company Bicycle Therapeutics is ready to ride into a glorious new era after carving a solid cash runway and growing an already deep and rich portfolio within and beyond the field of cancer.
Its Q4 and full year 2023 results show an unrelenting investment in future cures for patients in a range of disease areas and a commitment to deliver on the company’s vast global potential.
The board points to what it calls a “catalyst-rich 2024 with multiple clinical data readouts and updates expected for pipeline and discovery programs.”
Bicycle’s Phase 2/3 Duravelo-2 registrational trial for BT8009 in metastatic urothelial cancer is now active and recruiting patients. BT8009 initial clinical data showed a promising response and differentiated safety profile.
A recent and innovative R & D Day outlined near-term strategic priorities and highlighted the breadth of the Bicycle® platform technology and the company’s ability to develop highly differentiated precision therapies for cancer and other diseases.
Bicycle ended 2023 with cash and equivalents of $526.4 million which is expected to provide a financial runway into 2026.
CEO Kevin Lee commented: “2023 was a pivotal year for our company, during which we achieved significant progress across our Nectin-4 and EphA2 clinical oncology portfolios and our discovery pipeline of next-generation Bicycle® molecules, including in radiopharmaceuticals and areas beyond oncology.
“We continue to demonstrate our ability to develop highly differentiated, precision-guided therapeutics that may offer greater tolerability and lead to enhanced benefit for patients.
“With a catalyst-rich 2024 expected, a strong financial position, validating partnerships and a unique platform technology, we enter this year with significant momentum and focus to advance our mission to help patients not only live longer but also live well.”
Spend on R & D climbed and losses widened but all contained within a bandwidth of brilliant science as Bicycle executes its plan to become a leader in next-generation solid tumour therapeutics and combinations and lead position in other key areas of BioMedTech.
Peer-reviewed data gathered from clinical trials pinpoints encouraging medical efficacy and progress on several fronts.
For the bean counters, the NASDAQ-quoted Transatlantic business reported R & D expenses up to $44.7m for the last quarter and $156.5m for the year – up from $24.7m and $81.6m, respectively, year-on-year.
Q4 net loss was $49.1m and annual net loss $180.7m compared to $30m and $112.7m the previous year.