Canadian company bags CAD$2.4m grant to discover new non-hormonal contraceptives

The biotech company Cyclica has received a CAD$2.4m grant to identify new non-hormonal contraceptive options.

The grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is hoped to enable Cyclica to use its AI drug discovery platform to find new therapeutic options for multiple low-data biological targets to expand the range of accessible non-hormonal contraceptive choices and give women the ability to better plan their futures.

Historically, hormone-based contraceptives are known to cause side effects that tend to reduce their appeal.

The Toronto-based company, however, says that a widely available non-hormonal contraceptive would provide an additional safe, effective choice for women and girls looking to take charge of their reproductive health.

To date, research on discovering non-hormonal contraceptive agents has been hindered by a dearth of validated and enabled drug targets.

While there are a small set of targets with sufficient supporting biological data and technical feasibility to warrant substantial investment, there are a set of less mature and emerging targets where the availability of new chemical starting points would enable novel target assessment and biological investigation.

Cyclica aims to make an impact, as its platform is optimised for drug discovery against low-data drug targets.

“While Cyclica builds and advances a commercial portfolio of drug discovery programmes, it is part of our corporate ethos to work alongside nonprofit organisations to advance research for unmet medical needs,” said Naheed Kurji, Cyclica CEO.

“Among women who want to delay or avoid pregnancy, concerns about side effects are the most common reason they give for not using modern contraception.

“We are honoured to have received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work towards discovering new, hormone-free contraceptives that will expand the range of contraceptive options available to women and girls.”

Mike Palovich, Cyclica chief science officer, said: “Cyclica has a track record of success in the low-data target area for unmet clinical needs.

“We have the experience needed to tackle this currently undrugged, high-need opportunity, and progress it to the clinic on a faster and less costly trajectory than that offered by traditional methods.

“I’m impressed by the level of domain expertise within the BMGF scientific team, and we’re looking forward to collaborating with them toward this shared goal.”