CAMBRIDGE, England & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bicycle Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) product platform, announced today the promotion of Michael Skynner, Ph.D., to the role of Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Skynner has served as Bicycle’s Vice President of Operations and Discovery since January 2016.
“Michael has made significant contributions to the company, playing a key role in establishing and guiding Bicycle’s strategic alliances with AstraZeneca, Bioverativ and Cancer Research UK and in securing the recent anti-infectives award from Innovate UK,” said Kevin Lee, Ph.D., MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Bicycle. “His strategic insights and business partnering experience will be invaluable as we continue to advance our lead drug candidate BT1718 through clinical development, expand our therapeutic pipeline, and pursue additional opportunities to broaden the therapeutic potential for Bicycles.”
“I am delighted at this opportunity to help maximize the enormous potential of the Bicycle technology, which could transform treatment options for patients in oncology and in other therapeutic areas,” said Dr. Skynner. “With our recent initiation of the first-ever clinical trial of a Bicycle®, the company has entered a pivotal new stage of growth. I look forward to continuing to work with our talented team to pioneer the discovery and progression of this new therapeutic class of molecules.”
Dr. Skynner joined Bicycle from Pfizer in 2016, where he led rare disease efforts in Europe and founded and ran the Pfizer Rare Disease Consortium (RDC), a novel vehicle for academic collaboration. Previously, he established and headed a discovery performance unit at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) focused on developing anti- inflammatory kinase therapeutics using an externalized partnered model. Prior to GSK he co-founded a successful biotech start-up company, Cambridge Biotechnology Ltd., (CBT), which specialized in developing small molecule and peptide therapeutics. Dr. Skynner obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry at Imperial College and is an author on over 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
ABOUT BICYCLE THERAPEUTICS
Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a unique class of chemically synthesized medicines based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) product platform to address therapeutic needs unreachable with existing treatment modalities. Bicycle’s internal focus is in oncology, where the company is developing targeted cytotoxics (Bicycle Toxin Conjugates), targeted innate immune activators and T-cell modulators for cancers of high unmet medical need. Bicycles’ small size and exquisite targeting deliver rapid tumor penetration and retention while clearance rates and routes of elimination can be tuned to minimize exposure of healthy tissue and bystander toxicities. The company’s lead program, BT718, is being evaluated in a Phase I/IIa trial in collaboration with Cancer Research, UK. The company’s unique intellectual property is based on the work initiated at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K., by the scientific founders of the company, Sir Gregory Winter and Professor Christian Heinis. Bicycle has its headquarters in Cambridge, U.K., with many key functions and members of its leadership team located in the biotech hub of Boston, Mass. For more information, visit www.bicycletherapeutics.com or follow us on Twitter at @Bicycle_tx.
