Bicycle Therapeutics set for ‘transformational’ 2025, says CEO

Lee is basing his upbeat prognosis on a solid set of full-year results just announced for 2024, a large cash runway and a pipeline of products that are set to revolutionise cancer treatment worldwide.

Thanks to a May 2024 equity raise bonanza on Nasdaq, Bicycle nursed cash and equivalents of $879.5 million as of December 31 – a nest egg expected to provide a financial runway into the second half of 2027.

And Lee outlined the company’s reasons to be cheerful as he piled a considerable amount of flesh onto those bones. He said: “In 2024, the significant progress across our pipeline and business continued to validate our approach to developing next-generation precision-guided therapeutics.

“We believe that zelenectide pevedotin’s promising anti-tumour activity and differentiated safety profile could transform the treatment landscape not only for patients with metastatic urothelial cancer but also NECTIN4 gene-amplified solid tumours.

“Additionally, our encouraging first human imaging data for MT1-MMP demonstrates the potential of our technology platform to produce radiopharmaceutical medicines to novel targets.

“With a clear strategy to build on this foundation and financial runway into the second half of 2027, we are strongly positioned for another year of execution across our research and development pipeline of oncology, radiopharmaceuticals and partnered programs as we work to bring innovative therapies to cancer patients.”

The war chest of $879.5m at December 31 compared to $526.4m at the same stage of the previous year. The increase was primarily due to net proceeds from the company’s private investment in public equity financing that May and share option exercises – offset by the repayment of the company’s debt facility with Hercules Capital, Inc. in July and cash used in operating activities.

R & D expenses were $49.8m for the three months to December 31 and $173m for the full year. Those figures compared to $44.7m and $156.5m.

General and administrative expenses were $21.6m for the final quarter and $72.2m for the year ($14.9m and $60.4m).

Net loss was $51.9m for the quarter and $169m for the year ($49.1m and $180.7m – modest cash burns considering the progress being made in the clinic and in trials.