Spin out
Greg Winter, a world-renowned antibody researcher and founding scientist of Cambridge Antibody Technology and Domantis Ltd, has spun out yet another antibody company from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
Bicyle Therapeutics Ltd is “poised at the interface” between small molecule drugs and biologics, says CEO John Tite. The company will develop products that combine a chemical scaffold with scaled-down elements of antibodies. This will provide the best qualities of small molecules and antibodies, while reducing the drawbacks of each.
So, for example, Bicycle’s products will have the specificity and affinity of antibodies, but can be manufactured by synthetic means, making them much cheaper to produce than antibodies. The combination of their small size and specificity will make it possible to address drug targets that are not accessible with full size antibodies.
An undisclosed amount of seed funding has come from Atlas Venture and Novartis Venture Fund.
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