Bicycle goes nuclear with uranium deal to blitz cancer
The NASDAQ-quoted Pharma company, headquartered at Granta Park, has agreed a 15-year contract, including an option to renew, with the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) for access to up to 400 tonnes of reprocessed uranium (RepU).
RepU continually regenerates - providing a potentially sustainable supply of 212Pb. Bicycle intends to use the RepU provided by the deal in its development of potential lifesaving therapies.
At the same time, Bicycle announced a collaboration with United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL), whereby it plans to extract 228Th from the RepU obtained from NDA. The extracted 228Th will then be further processed into 224Ra and loaded into a bespoke 212Pb generator being developed exclusively for Bicycle by SpectronRx, which is headquartered in Indianapolis. 212Pb is a radioisotope and one of the more potent therapeutic payloads against cancer cells known as Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT).
Collectively, this bespoke set of arrangements is designed to support the potential discovery, development, and commercial supply of a portfolio of Bicycle® Radioconjugates (BRC®) containing 212Pb.
Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, was thrilled by the deal. She said: “Cancer is a disease that affects millions worldwide, and tears too many families apart. Breakthroughs in medical science are giving more cancer patients and their loved ones hope, and this unique partnership could help take that work even further.
“Turning nuclear material into cutting-edge cancer treatments sounds like science fiction – but thanks to the brilliance of scientists, researchers and doctors, it could be a life-saving reality. Work like this shows exactly why we’re determined to support our life sciences innovators to make groundbreaking new treatments possible.”
Bicycle Therapeutics CEO Kevin Lee, added: “I am delighted with the progress we are making in establishing ourselves as a potential leader in radiopharmaceutical R & D. This announcement builds on our previous announcements concerning our agreement with Eckert & Ziegler to supply a range of radioisotopes for the manufacture of BRC products as well as the formation of our Research and Innovation Advisory Board (RAB) comprising some of the worlds most esteemed experts in radiopharmaceuticals.
“As we continue to advance our emerging BRC pipeline, currently with novel targets EphA2 and MT1-MMP, we look forward to presenting initial EphA2 human imaging data in the first half of 2026 and initiating our own Bicycle study next year.”
Bicycle Therapeutics is a developing a novel class of medicines, referred to as Bicycle® molecules, for diseases that are underserved by existing therapeutics. Bicycle molecules are fully synthetic short peptides constrained with small molecule scaffolds to form two loops that stabilise their structural geometry.
This constraint facilitates target binding with high affinity and selectivity, making Bicycle molecules attractive candidates for drug development.
While Bicycle Therapeutics is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, many key functions and members of its leadership team are located in Cambridge, Mass. in the United States.
