On knowledge-intensive businesses continued

Driving commercial progress

Bicycle Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BCYC), a biotechnology company pioneering a new and differentiated class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) technology, announced that it has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Novartis to develop, manufacture and commercialise Bicycle® radio-conjugates (BRCs) for multiple agreed upon oncology targets. Under the terms of the agreement:

Bicycle will utilise its proprietary phage platform to discover Bicycles to be developed into BRCs;

• Novartis will be responsible for further development, manufacture and commercialisation of the BRCs; Novartis will fund all pre-clinical and clinical development and commercialisation activities; and Bicycle will receive a $50 million upfront payment and be eligible for development and commercial-based milestone payments totalling up to $1.7 billion and receive tiered royalties on Bicycle-based medicines commercialised by Novartis.

Bicycle also announced that Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, had exercised its second option to initiate a new programme, expanding the exclusive strategic collaboration agreement with Bicycle to discover, develop and commercialise novel Bicycle®-based immuno-oncology therapies. Pursuant to the terms of the February 2020 agreement, Genentech was granted two collaboration expansion option, each of which gave Genentech the right to add one additional programme to the collaboration in exchange for a $10 million payment to Bicycle. Having exercised the first option in October 2021, Genentech exercised its second option, thus triggering an additional $10 million payment.

Carrick Therapeutics, an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, announced a $35 million collaboration with Pfizer for combination development. Shortly after closing the collaboration with Pfizer, Carrick also announced that it had entered a clinical trial collaboration with The Menarini Group to evaluate samuraciclib and elacestrant in combination.

Congenica, the UK-based digital health company that enables the rapid analysis and interpretation of genomic data, was awarded the second stage of a contract to develop standardised next generation sequencing workflows in oncology for a group of seven Central European hospitals represented by the Medical University Graz. The European Union Horizon 2020 funded project, ‘About INtegrated and STANDardized NGS workflows FOR Personalized therapy’ (InstandNGS4P), has been set up to support the development of integrated and standardised next generation sequencing workflows to guide therapy decisions and provide clinical decision support at the bedside of cancer patients.

Capital Invested

CMR Surgical, the global robotics business, announced that its Versius® Surgical Robotic System has been used in more than 10,000 surgeries spanning 130 different procedure types across seven surgical specialities across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Designed to offer high utilisation in operating rooms, Versius® is being used to perform a wide variety of both routine and complex procedures across a range of specialties including gynaecology, colorectal surgery, thoracic surgery, general surgery and urology –from hernia repairs and hysterectomies to radical prostatectomies and lower anterio resections.

CMR also announced that it had launched partnerships with two tele-mentoring companies, Teladoc Health and SurgEase Innovations, to enhance its ongoing training support for surgical teams. Tele-mentoring systems utilise specialised monitors, sound systems and cameras to allow trainers and surgical preceptors to provide real-time guidance and technical assistance during surgical procedures irrespective of geography, to provide expert clinical support for surgical teams as they master the Versius® technology. This additional remote assistance is provided to surgical teams as part of CMR’s comprehensive stepwise training programme, which utilises enhanced virtual reality technology, extensive supervised training and preceptor support.

Microbiotica, a leader in discovering and developing microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers, announced a clinical trial collaboration with MSD (Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA) to evaluate MB097 in combination with KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) in a Phase 1b clinical trial in melanoma.

Under the terms of the agreement, Microbiotica will conduct a Phase 1b clinical trial to evaluate the safety and tolerability, and initial signs of clinical activity of its live biotherapeutic product, MB097, in combination with KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab), MSD’s anti-PD-1 therapy, in melanoma patients with primary resistance to an anti-PD-1-containing immunotherapy.

Pragmatic Semiconductor, worked with researchers in the US on the first programmable processor designed specifically for a plastic process technology. Pragmatic and its partners have previously demonstrated the world’s first non-silicon ARM processor and also designed the iconic 6502 processor for its flexible plastic technology, but this is the first project to explore the performance, power, size and yield trade-offs of the technology. This is the first time that a microprocessor has been developed specifically for Pragmatic’s FlexIC Foundry service, using bespoke chip architectures designed by researchers at the University of Illinois.

Riverlane, the quantum engineering company building the world’s first operating system for error corrected quantum computing, and Rigetti (NASDAQ: RGTI), a pioneer in hybrid quantum-classical computing, announced a partnership backed by Innovate UK to tackle syndrome extraction on superconducting quantum computers. Syndrome extraction is a crucial step in quantum error correction, the greatest challenge to be solved to develop useful quantum computers that can process more data with far greater accuracy than is possible today. Useful quantum computers can unlock previously impossible scientific possibilities and transform a range of vital industries, including healthcare, sustainable energy and advanced materials.