What Circle Pharma does

Circle Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing orally bioavailable macrocyclic therapeutics designed to disrupt intracellular protein-protein interactions historically considered undruggable by conventional small molecules. Founded around 2013 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, the company is led by President and CEO David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., with co-founders Matthew P. Jacobson, Ph.D. and Scott Lokey pioneering the foundational understanding of synthetic macrocycle cell permeability. The company's proprietary MXMO™ (Macrocycles by Crosslinking MOtif) platform combines computationally driven structure-based design with advanced fully synthetic macrocycle chemistry, AI/ML, and physics-based simulations to screen permeability-biased virtual and physical chemical libraries and synthesize diverse compound variations from natural and unnatural building blocks.

Circle Pharma's pipeline is anchored by CID-078, a first-in-class oral macrocyclic cyclin A/B RxL inhibitor currently in a multicenter Phase 1 clinical trial (NCT06577987) enrolling patients with advanced solid tumors harboring RB1 alterations. A second program, CID-165, an oral first-in-class cyclin D1 RxL inhibitor, was nominated as a development candidate in December 2025 with IND submission expected in late 2026, targeting cyclin D1-driven cancers including ER-positive breast cancer and lymphomas. An additional undisclosed cyclin program is partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim in a deal valued at up to $607 million. The primary patient populations served are oncology patients with tumors characterized by RB1 loss, elevated E2F activity, or cyclin overexpression, including small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.

The company is pre-revenue and operates an enterprise field-sales and partnership model, monetizing through future product commercialization and pharma collaborations. Strategic channels include presentations at major investor conferences (J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Oppenheimer, TD Cowen, Leerink) and scientific conferences (AACR, AACR-NCI-EORTC). Circle Pharma is backed by a deep investor syndicate including The Column Group (lead investor), Nextech Invest, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Euclidean Capital, Pandect, Pavilion Capital, Hartford HealthCare Endowment, Lifeforce Capital, Hongsen Investment, and Berkeley Catalyst Fund. The company employed approximately 60 staff as of May 2025 and expanded its South San Francisco facilities that year.

Name

Circle Pharma

Legal name

Circle Pharma, Inc.

Website

https://circlepharma.com/

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Circle Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company using its proprietary MXMO™ macrocycle platform to develop orally bioavailable therapeutics against undruggable cyclin targets in oncology. Its lead program CID-078 is in Phase 1 for advanced solid tumors, with CID-165 in preclinical development.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Oncology Macrocyclic Therapeutics

NAICS

Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing (325412), Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing (3254)

SIC

Pharmaceutical Preparations (2834)

akta.pro primary industry

Primary Care & General Medicine Pharmaceuticals (HLAIAAAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Chiral / Asymmetric Synthesis & Complex Chemistry Services (HLAGAHAE)

Keywords

• Macrocyclic peptide therapeutics
• Oncology drug development
• Protein-protein interaction inhibitors
• Cell cycle therapeutics
• Biopharmaceutical pipeline

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Drug Development and Commercialization: As a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, Circle Pharma is pre-revenue. The company is developing macrocyclic therapeutics for cancer with lead program CID-078 in Phase 1 clinical trials. Revenue will be generated through future product sales upon regulatory approval.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Circle Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing orally bioavailable macrocyclic peptide therapeutics that target intracellular protein-protein interactions for cancer treatment. Its pipeline includes CID-078 (cyclin A/B RxL inhibitor in Phase 1), CID-165 (cyclin D1 RxL inhibitor development candidate), and an undisclosed cyclin program partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim, all enabled by its proprietary MXMO discovery platform.

Product overview

Circle Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing targeted macrocycle therapeutics for cancer using its proprietary MXMO™ platform. The company's pipeline includes CID-078 (cyclin A/B RxL inhibitor in Phase 1 clinical trials), CID-165 (cyclin D1 RxL inhibitor as development candidate), and an undisclosed cyclin program partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim. The MXMO platform enables creation of cell-permeable and orally bioavailable macrocycles against historically undruggable targets.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• MXMO Platform Proprietary drug discovery platform that combines computationally driven structure-based design, AI/ML and physics-based simulation with advanced synthetic macrocycle chemistry to create intrinsically cell-permeable and orally bioavailable macrocycle therapeutics targeting historically undruggable intracellular protein-protein interactions. Used internally to generate Circle's pipeline candidates.
• CID-078 First-in-class oral macrocyclic cyclin A/B RxL inhibitor currently in Phase 1 clinical development for patients with advanced solid tumors harboring RB1 alterations. Selectively targets tumor cells with oncogenic alterations causing cell cycle dysregulation, including small cell lung cancer and ovarian cancer.
• CID-165 First-in-class oral macrocyclic cyclin D1 RxL inhibitor nominated as development candidate for Circle's second oncology program. Targets cyclin D1-driven cancers including ER-positive breast cancer and lymphomas. IND submission expected late 2026.
• Undisclosed Cyclin Program (Boehringer Ingelheim partnership) Discovery-stage cyclin program partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim targeting multiple tumor types under a partnership deal valued at up to $607 million. Specific cyclin target is undisclosed.

Quantifiable outcome

• Single-agent tumor regressions demonstrated in multiple xenograft preclinical models with CID-078
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Eli LillycoreTechnology or Integration · 9 September 2025Circle Pharma partnered with Eli Lilly to use the TuneLab AI/ML platform for developing cancer therapies. TuneLab provides access to drug discovery models trained on over $1 billion of Lilly's research data. The platform uses federated computing technology to protect proprietary data while enabling collaborative AI model training.
• Boehringer IngelheimflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Circle Pharma entered into a partnership valued at up to $607 million with Boehringer Ingelheim for a preclinical cyclin program (undisclosed cyclin target). Boehringer Ingelheim sees potential in Circle Pharma's first-in-class cancer approach targeting cyclins.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Bicycle Therapeutics: Develops constrained bicyclic peptides (Bicycles) as targeted therapeutics for oncology, including BT8009 for nectin-4 and BT5528 for EphA2. The constrained peptide modality targeting tumor-specific antigens is the closest analog to Circle's macrocyclic peptide approach.
• Revolution Medicines: Develops tri-complex inhibitors that disrupt protein-protein interactions in oncology, including RMC-6236 (daraxonrasib) targeting RAS(ON) multi-complex PPIs. Circle board director Stephen Kelsey serves as RVMD's president and CMO, providing direct organizational linkage and conceptual alignment.
• Arvinas: Pioneers targeted protein degradation via PROTACs to address historically undruggable protein targets in oncology, with vepdegestrant (ARV-471) in Phase 3 for breast cancer. Shares Circle's focus on disrupting previously challenging cancer-driving proteins through novel chemistry.
• Relay Therapeutics: Uses motion-based computational drug design platform to develop precision oncology therapeutics, including RLY-4008 (lirafugratinib) for FGFR2. Co-founded by Matthew Jacobson, who is also Circle Pharma's co-founder, creating direct technology and organizational lineage.
• Tango Therapeutics: Develops precision oncology therapeutics using synthetic lethality approaches, including TNG462 for PRMT5 and TNG260 for synthetic lethality targets. Shares Circle's focus on identifying and exploiting specific cancer-driving vulnerabilities through novel mechanism of action.
• Foghorn Therapeutics: Develops cancer therapeutics targeting chromatin regulatory proteins and transcriptional machinery, including FHD-286 for AML and mutant SMARCA4 programs. Addresses complex protein-protein interactions in oncology, conceptually adjacent to Circle's cyclin RxL approach.

Broad incumbents

• Recursion: AI-driven drug discovery platform combining high-throughput biology with machine learning to identify novel drug targets and therapeutics. Circle's SVP of Research Marie Evangelista was previously VP of Oncology at Recursion, providing organizational and methodological overlap with Circle's MXMO AI/ML design approach.
• Schrodinger: Computational drug design platform serving pharma clients and developing an internal pipeline. Their physics-based simulation platform has direct conceptual overlap with Circle's MXMO approach of using computational and physics-based modeling to design drug-like macrocycles.

Emerging players

• Kymera Therapeutics: Develops targeted protein degraders using heterobifunctional small molecules, including KT-474 for immunology and KT-413 for MYC-driven lymphomas. Pursues 'undruggable' cancer targets through novel chemistry, conceptually adjacent to Circle's macrocycle approach to PPI disruption.
• Erasca: Precision oncology company targeting the RAS/MAPK pathway with multiple programs including naporafenib (pan-RAF inhibitor) and ERAS-007 (ERK1/2 inhibitor). Competes for similar oncology patient populations using novel small molecule approaches against historically difficult cancer targets.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CirclePharma
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/circle-pharma-inc-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles21 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds8 records

Investors19 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Circle Pharma