CAMBRIDGE, England, & BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bicycle Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: BCYC), a biotechnology company pioneering a new and differentiated class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) technology, today announced the appointment of Jose-Carlos (“JC”) Gutierrez-Ramos, Ph.D., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Gutierrez-Ramos previously served as the Chair of Bicycle’s Scientific Advisory Board and has extensive experience in leading biopharmaceutical companies and scientific groups in the world’s top academic institutions.
“We are delighted to welcome JC back to the Bicycle team as a Board member. JC has dedicated his entire career, most of it in senior leadership roles in pharma, to evolving emerging science and new technologies into novel and important therapeutics. His deep experience and future contributions will be invaluable to the Board and the ongoing success of the company,” said Kevin Lee, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics. “We look forward to benefitting from JC’s substantial expertise as a preeminent drug development leader as we continue to advance our broad clinical oncology pipeline and in parallel extend the novel Bicycle platform to address multiple unmet medical needs in other significant diseases.”
Dr. Gutierrez-Ramos said: “It will be a pleasure working with Bicycle again. Bicycles represent a new modality and a truly unique innovative technology, and I firmly believe in their potential to improve treatment options for patients suffering from a wide range of diseases with insufficient treatment options. I look forward to working with the team once again to advance these promising new medicines with the goal of changing the treatment paradigm for patients.”
Dr. Gutierrez-Ramos serves as Chief Science Officer at the Danaher Corporation. Prior to Danaher, he served as the Head of Global Drug Discovery at AbbVie Inc. Previously, Dr. Gutierrez-Ramos was Group Senior Vice President Biotherapeutics R&D at Pfizer Inc. and Senior Vice President and CEDD Head of Immuno Inflammation at GlaxoSmithKline plc. He was the founding CEO and President at Repertoire Immune Medicine, where he built and led a team to decode the human immunome. Previously, Dr. Gutierrez-Ramos was President and CEO of Synlogic, Inc., where he led the company from early discovery to the clinical stage and to the public markets. As a biotech leader or in global positions, he oversaw multiple drug discovery teams, resulting in five marketed drugs. He previously served in a series of progressively more responsible research and development roles at Avidia (acquired by Amgen Inc.) and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Takeda Oncology).
Prior to working in the private sector, Dr. Gutierrez-Ramos was a tenure track professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Genetics. He was also a professor for the Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC) at the National Center of Biotechnology in Madrid, Spain. He was a scientist and member at the prestigious Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Plank Institute for Immunbiologie in Freiburg, Germany.
Dr. Gutierrez-Ramos earned a Ph.D. from the Immunology Department of the Center for Molecular Biology at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain and a Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude, in Chemistry with a minor in Biochemistry from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
About Bicycle Therapeutics
Bicycle Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BCYC) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel class of medicines, referred to as Bicycles, for diseases that are underserved by existing therapeutics. Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained with small molecule scaffolds to form two loops that stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint facilitates target binding with high affinity and selectivity, making Bicycles attractive candidates for drug development. Bicycle’s lead product candidate, BT1718, a Bicycle Toxin Conjugate (BTC) that targets MT1-MMP, is being investigated in an ongoing Phase I/IIa clinical trial in collaboration with the Centre for Drug Development of Cancer Research UK. Bicycle is also evaluating BT5528, a second-generation BTC targeting EphA2, in a company-sponsored Phase I/II trial. BT8009 is a BTC targeting Nectin-4, a well-validated tumor antigen, and is also currently being evaluated in a Company-sponsored Phase I/II trial. Bicycle is headquartered in Cambridge, UK with many key functions and members of its leadership team located in Lexington, MA. For more information, visit bicycletherapeutics.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “possible,” “potential,” “seeks,” “will” and variations of these words or similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the advancement of Bicycle’s clinical oncology pipeline; the anticipated extension of the Bicycle platform to address unmet medical needs in other significant diseases, and the therapeutic potential of Bicycle’s product candidates. Bicycle may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including: uncertainties inherent in the initiation and completion of preclinical studies and clinical trials and clinical development of Bicycle’s product candidates by Bicycle or its collaboration partners; the risk that Bicycle may not realize the intended benefits of its technology; availability and timing of results from preclinical studies and clinical trials; whether the outcomes of preclinical studies will be predictive of clinical trial results; whether initial or interim results from a clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of the trial or the results of future trials; the risk that trials and studies may be delayed and may not have satisfactory outcomes; potential adverse effects arising from the testing or use of Bicycle’s product candidates; risks related to Bicycle’s ability to maintain existing collaborations and realize the benefits thereof; expectations for regulatory approvals to conduct trials or to market products; and other important factors, any of which could cause our actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, are described in greater detail in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Bicycle’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 11, 2021, as well as in other filings Bicycle may make with the SEC in the future. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Bicycle expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether because of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.
Contacts
Investor and Media:
Argot Partners
Maeve Conneighton
bicycle@argotpartners.com
+1-212-600-1902