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 Zafar Qadir as the Company’s General Counsel.
“With the addition of Zaf to the Bicycle team, we are continuing to strengthen key functions of corporate leadership, in particular those critical to successfully maintaining a transatlantic business such as ours,” said Kevin Lee, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics. “Zaf brings to Bicycle considerable legal expertise and experience with multinational life science companies advancing cutting edge science. We believe the legal oversight and guidance Zaf will provide as General Counsel will be critical to achieving our near-term goals of building a wholly-owned portfolio of innovative cancer treatments and establishing partnerships to develop novel therapeutics for indications beyond oncology, as well as our longer-term objective of becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company.”
“I am very happy to join Bicycle at such an important point in the Company’s growth and development,” said Zafar Qadir, General Counsel of Bicycle Therapeutics. “In the past few years, Bicycle has embarked on exciting new collaborations with industry, academic and nonprofit partners, and advanced a pipeline of differentiated therapeutic candidates based on Bicycle technology, which is built from Nobel Prize-winning science. I look forward to supporting future progress as head of the Company’s legal function.”
Mr. Qadir joins Bicycle from the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, an innovation center supported by the United Kingdom’s innovation agency (Innovate UK) with the mission of building a world-class cell and gene therapy sector in the UK, where he acted as legal and business adviser. Previously, he was Vice President, Legal Counsel & Company Secretary of Cell Medica, a cellular immunotherapy company formerly headquartered in London with offices and facilities in the U.S., Germany and Switzerland. In that role, Mr. Qadir led Cell Medica’s legal team, supported negotiations of new collaborations and licenses, developed the company’s strategy on intellectual property and provided legal support to its international affiliates. Prior to Cell Medica, he was an associate at Covington & Burling LLP, specializing in commercial and strategic transactions, with a particular focus on client companies in the life sciences sector. Mr. Qadir received a Graduate Diploma in Law from City University of London and a Master’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of Bath.
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 study. 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 Bicycle’s business strategy, including its business and product development plans. 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: the risk that we may not realize the intended benefits of our technology, including that we may not identify and develop additional product candidates; the risk that we may not be able to maintain existing collaborations and realize the benefits thereof or develop new relationships; 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 our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 10, 2020, 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 as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.
Contacts
Investor and Media Contact:
Bicycle Therapeutics
Maren Killackey
maren.killackey@bicycletx.com
+1-617-203-8300