Circle Pharma

Circle Pharma is an early-stage biotechnology company that employs proprietary technology to primarily design and develop orally bioavailable macrocyclic peptide therapeutics for significant clinical targets. Circle’s technology facilitates the design and synthesis of inherently cell-permeable macrocycles, capable of addressing both intracellular and extracellular therapeutic targets, and deliverable through multiple routes, including oral administration. Circle's macrocycle drug discovery platform is applicable to a range of serious diseases, with the company initially focusing on developing intracellular protein-protein interactions, a key driver in cancer. Its lead program targets cyclins, which are part of the regulatory mechanisms controlling the progression of the cell growth and division cycle. Inhibition of cyclin A is synthetically lethal to cancer cells harboring mutations that cause dysregulation of the Rb pathway—a mutation frequently observed in small cell lung cancer. Overexpression of cyclin E is present in many tumor types, including endometrial and ovarian cancers, and is often associated with resistance to widely used cancer treatments, including trastuzumab and CDK4/6 inhibitors.