21 March 2019 - - UK-based biotechnology company Bicycle Therapeutics has appointed Pierre Legault, MBA, CPA, as a director and chairman of the board of directors, the company said.

Legault brings to Bicycle more than 35 years of executive leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry.

He replaces Stephen J. Hoffman, M.D., Ph.D., as chairman.

Legault also currently serves as the chairman of Poxel, a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative drugs for metabolic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. He is chairman of Artios, a DNA damage repair company.

He is also a member of the board of directors of Clementia Pharmaceuticals, Urovant Sciences and Syndax Pharmaceuticals.

In the past, he was a member of the board of directors at Forest Laboratories, Tobira Therapeutics, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Regado Biosciences, Armo Biosciences, Iroko Pharmaceuticals, Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Eckerd Pharmacy and Nephrogenex, where he also served as the chairman and CEO from 2012 to 2016.

From 2010 to 2012, he served as the CEO of Prosidion. From 2009 to 2010, he served as the CFO and treasurer of OSI Pharmaceuticals. Legault also served as the CEO of Eckerd Pharmacy and Senior executive vice president and CAO of the Rite Aid Corp.

Between 1989 and 2005, he held various global roles such as president, CEO and CFO of global group at Sanofi and legacy companies. Legault studied at McGill University, HEC Montreal and Harvard Business School.

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.

The company'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 highly selective 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 programme, BT1718, 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, UK, by the scientific founders of the company, Sir Greg Winter, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work in phage display of peptides and antibodies, and Professor Christian Heinis.

Bicycle has its headquarters in Cambridge, UK, with many key functions and members of its leadership team located in the biotech hub of Boston, Mass.