Bicycle keeps the wheels of talent turning across a long but rewarding journey

Analysts and shareholders look for consistent updates on companies in which they have invested – and that puts pressure on the companies they have backed to maintain momentum and keep the stock moving in the right direction.

Pharma specialist Bicycle Therapeutics is headquartered in Cambridge UK but quoted on Nasdaq in the US. It employs around 300 people, roughly two-thirds of them in the UK and the rest Coast2Coast across the States.

As a leading player in the fight against cancer, Bicycle has to strike a healthy balance between focusing on drug prospect progression and ensuring they retain the best scientists to optimise that pipeline.

And the need to maintain positive progress means the company has to address the allied issue of consistently recruiting future generations of talent – not just identifying it but also schooling it. That maintains and often strengthens a consistent pool of talent; at the same time it injects stakeholder confidence in pipeline development.

Current talent and potential future hires – they are different pieces in the same jigsaw and each vital to present a complete picture.

Bicycle’s Chief Technology Officer, Michael Skynner – who used to be with GSK – is a hot gospeller for identifying & recruiting energetic, ambitious and committed scientists to ensure that the quality of the company’s proposition is maintained or improved but doesn’t diminish.

It is also a personal passion of Mike’s to encourage future generations of talent: In fact, he considers it to be an obligation.

He said: “Since 2017 we have worked with the University of Bath which is something of a well-oiled machine in producing graduate and undergrad talent in the field of science.

“We have extended the relationship with Bath and also work with other universities, including Cambridge, to ensure Bicycle has access to future generations of talent. GSK was strong in the area of recruiting talent and that ethos has never deserted me.

“We have gradually grown the number of talented young people we take from universities at undergrad level. We allow them to work on specific projects within a team, just like any other recruits. They are not kept away from certain functions because they are students; it is important they work with key people at Bicycle and help advance our research priorities.

“We like them to work towards an answer for specific projects they are set; it is so empowering and, from my point of view and the company’s, so rewarding.

“To date we have seen a 90 per cent conversion rate of the students who have worked with us to First Class Degree level on their return to University.

“Ideally you would like these people ultimately to return to Bicycle to pursue full time scientific careers when they leave university, which is not always the case, but we have fared pretty well in this regard, too.

“Some of the young talent we have trained up return to become part of our workforce; others may join other companies in life sciences but it all shows that the system of educating talented students in science works more often than not.

“I passionately believe that we have an obligation to help train scientists of the future, even if they join a company other than Bicycle. It is just plain right that we assume the responsibility.

“Big Pharma would not be able to progress without such an approach. While I cannot think of any more complex area of life science than drug discovery, to see talented young scientists coming through to play a role in what we are endeavouring to achieve is so rewarding.”

Bicycle’s market cap at the time of writing was $850.65 million. Last year it raised $555m via a private placement to stretch its cash runway into the second half of 2027 – a terrific achievement in a demanding sector.

Bicycle was founded in 2009 to pioneer the development of synthetic short peptides known as ‘bicycle molecules’ to create a novel class of versatile, transformative therapeutic drugs that target disease and address high medical need.

The therapeutic modality draws on the scientific research of Professor Christian Heinis and Sir Greg Winter – winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Bicycle molecules are a novel potential treatment for cancer and other diseases.

In oncology, the company’s proprietary Bicycle molecules are designed to deliver therapeutic agents into solid tumours with precision, and the firm is currently advancing clinical trials to test its compounds for efficacy and safety before they are widely used to treat patients, with the aim of new medicines and better treatment outcomes.