Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IONS) announced on July 13th that it has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Bicycle Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: BCYC) to increase the delivery capabilities of Ionis’ advanced LIgand Conjugated Antisense (LICA) medicines. The agreement provides Ionis exclusive access to Bicycle’s proprietary macrocyclic peptides, referred to as Bicycles, to design LICAs that target transferrin receptor 1 for use with oligonucleotides. This LICA strategy has demonstrated both the improved delivery of antisense medicines to muscle tissue, including cardiac muscle, as well as the potential to cross the blood brain barrier. Bicycle Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel class of medicines, Bicycles, for diseases that are underserved by existing therapeutics. Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained with small molecule scaffolds to form two loops that stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint facilitates target binding with high affinity and selectivity, making Bicycles attractive candidates for drug development.
For further information, see Ionis ( Ionis enters exclusive licensing agreement with Bicycle Therapeutics aimed at further advancing LICA technology | Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. )
