Zelaland spent $80 million to acquire the macrocyclic peptide platform

Recently, Zealand Pharma, a Danish biomedical company focused on peptide drug research and development, announced that it would buy cycle therapeutics, a Toronto based biotechnology company, for us $80 million Cycle has an advanced biotechnology platform that can rapidly synthesize new macrocyclic peptides The acquisition aims to strengthen the peptide drug development of zelaland and its leading position in the field of gastrointestinal disease treatment The leading candidate drug for cycle, et3764, is an oral inhibitor targeting integrin α 4 β 7 Integrin α 4 β 7 is an important target for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) It is expressed on the surface of some circulating leukocytes, and it is a kind of core adhesion molecule that can mediate the migration of inflammatory lymphocytes to gut related immune tissues Et3764 can bind to the binding site of integrin α 4 β 7, which may inhibit its binding to intestinal mucosal cell adhesion molecule-1 (MAdCAM-1), and further restrict the ability of these pro-inflammatory lymphocytes to penetrate into intestinal tissue Vedolizumab, with similar therapeutic targets, has been approved in many countries for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease ▲ the leading candidate drug et3764 of cycle (picture source: reference [2]) This cooperation will also enable zelaland to obtain more than 5000 screening libraries of macrocyclic peptides These macrocyclic peptides have high tissue permeability, oral absorption and other physical and chemical properties, and have the potential to develop into a new generation of drugs ▲ circle's macrocyclic peptide screening library (picture source: reference [2]) Dr Jeffrey Coull, President and CEO of cycle, said: "cycle has been committed to the research of macrocyclic peptides Our research shows that macrocyclic peptides have great potential to regulate protein-protein interaction We are very pleased to transfer this technology to the research and development capability of zelaland, so that the therapeutic potential of macrocyclic peptides can be fully realized " Mr Emmanuel Dulac, President and CEO of Zeland Pharma, said: "cycle has demonstrated the great therapeutic potential of innovative peptide drugs such as macrocyclic peptides, and is also committed to developing oral peptide therapy that is convenient for patients Zealand is pleased to incorporate this emerging technology into its peptide platform It is believed that this will help Zealand consolidate its leading position in peptide drug development " reference material: [1] Zealand Pharma expands its peptide platform with acquisition of Encycle Therapeutics Retrieved Oct 23, 2019, from https:// [2] Form 6-K Zealand Pharma A/S For: Oct 23 Retrieved Oct 23, 2019, from https://sec.report/Document/0001104659-19-055677/ [3] Retrieved Oct 23, 2019, from https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/vwg7toukt6k42zdfhqzbgg A kind of