Bicycle Therapeutics plc announced that Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, has exercised its second option to initiate a new program, expanding the exclusive strategic collaboration agreement with Bicycle to discover, develop and commercialize novel Bicycle-based immuno-oncology therapies.
Bicycle and Genentech are collaborating on the discovery and pre-clinical development of novel Bicycle-based immunotherapies against multiple targets. Pursuant to the terms of the February 2020 agreement, Genentech was granted two collaboration expansion options, each of which gave Genentech the right to add one additional program to the collaboration in exchange for a $10 million payment to Bicycle. In October 2021, Genentech exercised its first expansion option, and has now exercised its second expansion option, triggering an additional $10 million payment. None of the compounds in Bicycle’s wholly owned oncology pipeline, including its immuno-oncology candidates, are included in the collaboration.
“We are pleased both with the ongoing progress in our collaboration with the preeminent immuno-oncology team at Genentech, and that Genentech has once again elected to exercise an option to add a new program,” said Kevin Lee, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics. “This represents the second expansion option exercised by Genentech under the terms of our collaboration agreement, and we believe this highlights the potential of Bicycles across a wide range of targets. We look forward to our continued collaboration to develop potential new cancer treatments based on Bicycles.”