In the face of the short supply of venture capital, the U.K. biotech sector weathered the storm in 2023, raising a total of £1.25 billion (US$1.6 billion) across 69 deals. That was 6% down on 2022, but has to be seen against the backdrop of U.K. VC investment across all sectors falling by a massive 43%. With follow-on financing by quoted companies, biotechs raised £1.8 billion overall.
Barely a month and a half after its radioconjugate approach landed a potential $1.7 billion deal with Novartis AG, Bicycle Therapeutics plc drew another big radiopharma player to the table, signing a collaboration agreement with Bayer AG to use Bicycle’s peptide technology to discover and develop radiotherapies against cancer targets. Terms are similar to the Novartis deal, with Bayer paying $45 million up front and Bicycle eligible for development and commercial milestones totaling up to $1.7 billion, and underline the growing interest in the radiopharma space.
Stock market exuberance, particularly in favor of an innovative industry working to pull the world out of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, led to drug developers shares surging 30% in 2020. But if one thing is certain, it is this: Markets usually pull back and that is partially why BioWorld’s Drug Developers Index is showing only a 2.06% gain so far this year, in contrast to both the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which are up 6.28% and 10.96%, respectively.
Cambridge, U.K.-based Bicycle Therapeutics plc’s phase I dosing about a month ago of its first patient with nectin-4-targeting BT-8009 put the company on the road to hoped-for success by pursuing the same mechanism of action as Padcev (enfortumab vedotin-ejfv), the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) from Astellas Pharma Inc. and Seagen Inc.
Bicycle Therapeutics plc said Roche Holding AG's Genentech Inc. has agreed to pay $30 million up front for rights to develop and commercialize up to four potential immuno-oncology therapies using the company's bicyclic peptide platform. Bicycle will be responsible for all discovery and lead optimization, while Genentech will take up R&D beyond that.