Star-crossed As­traZeneca strikes a drug dis­cov­ery deal with up­start Bi­cy­cle

As­traZeneca has struck a dis­cov­ery deal with Bi­cy­cle Ther­a­peu­tics, a trans-At­lantic biotech which hopes to make a splash with a new breed of mol­e­cules.

The biotech gained their sec­ond round of $32 mil­lion two years ago, at­tract­ing sup­port from At­las Ven­ture, No­var­tis Ven­ture Fund, SR One, SV Life Sci­ences and Astel­las Ven­ture Man­age­ment. The ven­ture groups were drawn to a Cam­bridge, UK start­up that promised to de­vel­op bi­cy­cle pep­tides that would com­bine the speci­fici­ty of an­ti­bod­ies with the rapid tis­sue pen­e­tra­tion of small mol­e­cules. And they brought in some high pro­file play­ers, in­clud­ing Pfiz­er vet Kevin Lee as CEO, adding a US of­fice in that “oth­er” Cam­bridge in Mass­a­chu­setts for its BD team.

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