Ficerafusp alfa

BOSTON, Oct. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bicara Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: BCAX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to bringing transformative bifunctional therapies to patients with solid tumors, today announced it awarded inducement grants on October 1, 2026 to two new employees as a material inducement to employment under Bicara’s 2026 Inducement Plan. The employees received, in the aggregate, non-qualified stock options to purchase 207,150 shares of Bicara’s common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, with an exercise price of $18.20 per share, equal to the closing price of Bicara’s common stock as reported by Nasdaq on October 1, 2026. One-fourth of the options vest on the first anniversary of the employee’s applicable start date, with the remaining options vesting in 12 equal quarterly installments thereafter, subject to the employee’s continued service with the company through each applicable vesting date. All of the above-described awards were granted outside of Bicara’s stockholder-approved equity incentive plans and are pursuant to Bicara’s 2026 Inducement Plan, which was adopted by Bicara’s board of directors in January 2026. The awards were approved by the compensation committee of Bicara’s board of directors, which is comprised solely of independent directors, as a material inducement to the employees entering into employment with Bicara in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). About Bicara Therapeutics Bicara Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to bringing transformative bifunctional therapies to patients with solid tumors. Bicara’s lead program, ficerafusp alfa, is a first-in-class bifunctional antibody designed to drive tumor penetration by breaking barriers in the tumor microenvironment that have challenged the treatment of multiple solid tumor cancers. Specifically, ficerafusp alfa combines two clinically validated targets: an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) directed monoclonal antibody with a domain that binds to human transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β). Through this targeted mechanism, ficerafusp alfa reverses the fibrotic and immune-excluded tumor microenvironment driven by TGF-β signaling to enable tumor penetration that drives deep and durable responses. Ficerafusp alfa is being developed in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, where there remains a significant unmet need, as well as other solid tumor types. For more information, please visit or follow us on LinkedIn and X. Contacts Investors Rachel Frank IR@bicara.com Media Tim Palmer Tim.Palmer@bicara.com

iStock, Liudmila Chernetska Strange and bittersweet. That’s how Claire Mazumdar describes her plan to step down from the top spot at Bicara, a biotech she helped form, and head out on parental leave before transitioning into a new role. After creating Bicara and serving as CEO for nearly seven years, Claire Mazumdar is stepping down at the end of this year. Taking her place is Bicara Chief Operating Officer Ryan Cohlhepp—someone Mazumdar has worked with for 10 years. “I think I always knew . . . in the hypothetical sense from the very beginning that there would come a time where his experience was best suited to take the organization forward,” Mazumdar said about Cohlhepp. “That was really [for] when we would be closer to commercial launch.” Before Bicara, the duo worked at immunometabolism biotech Rheos Medicines , where Cohlhepp led research and development efforts. Before that, he served for more than a decade at Takeda’s oncology division, including as vice president of marketing, operations and analytics. Starting Jan. 1, 2027, Cohlhepp will take the reins of Bicara while Mazumdar will transition into a new role as strategic advisor and vice chair of the board of directors. Bicara Therapeutics The shift comes as Bicara ramps up for the potential market launch of lead asset ficerafusp alfa , a late-stage bifunctional EGFR/TGF-β antibody, as a first-line treatment for advanced head and neck cancer. The biotech is currently recruiting for a Phase 3 trial, with topline results expected in mid-2027. With a possible product launch on the horizon, Mazumdar started to realize that Cohlhepp “was the right leader and that my lack of experience from that commercial standpoint was not what was best for Bicara.” “My background is far more on the research and development side, having done work in cancer biology and more in clinical development,” she added. Mazumdar isn’t stepping away from Bicara, though, viewing the change as more of an “evolution” of her role at the biotech. Before she starts her new position, though, Mazumdar is adding another member to her family. “It’s maybe a little strange to go out on maternity leave beforehand, but you can never time these things perfectly,” she told Biospace in late August. “I’m in this purgatory state—it could be any moment, or it could be three weeks from now.” Cohlhepp has already had a trial run as Bicara’s top leader. He served as acting CEO during Mazumdar’s previous maternity leave, taking the helm around the same time that the biotech closed a $165 million Series C in December 2023. “Ryan at that time stepped in as interim CEO and allowed me the space and time to really have time with my family,” she said, adding how important it is for her to model work-life balance for her team. Bicara’s executive team includes multiple women who have three children or more, Mazumdar said. She cited the company’s supportive and flexible environment as enabling those executives to “rise to the top of their careers.” C-suite ReCode CEO Suliman leaves cystic fibrosis mission in mentee’s hands After achieving clinical validation earlier this year, ReCode Therapeutics has called up a new CEO to take on the mission of advancing programs for cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia through the clinic. September 23, 2026 · 3 min read · Annalee Armstrong Read more “I actually credit some of the men in our company for helping really continue to foster that environment,” she said. A lot of Bicara staffers work to maintain a new standard of work-life balance that they were able to experience for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Mazumdar. Those leaders “had been working ludicrous hours at prior companies before COVID and finally got space and time to realize that they could be present with their families,” she said. “I think that was a really a formative time for people to realize we don’t want to go back to awful hours, and there is a balance to all of these things.” As CEO, Mazumdar prioritized creating a hybrid work environment that doesn’t always require being in the office five days a week. And her dedication to curating that balance seems to have paid off. “I think the best feedback I ever got about Bicara is when my employees tell me they don’t have the Sunday scaries,” she said, referring to a cultural phenomenon of dreading returning to work after the weekend. When she thinks about leaving, Mazumdar feels a “bittersweetness” knowing she won’t be able to work with the Bicara team in such a direct role anymore. Her proudest achievement at the biotech is the team she’s helped build and support. “Surround yourself with people that you trust and respect,” Mazumdar advised. “Know that there are going to be tough times—and times when things are good—but those are the people you want to wake up on a Monday morning and work with.” First-time CEO surprises Looking back on her time as a first-time CEO, Mazumdar said one of her least-expected challenges was securing funding. Bicara launched in March 2021 with $40 million in seed money from parent company Biocon. Before founding Bicara, Mazumdar had served as a senior associate at prominent biotech VC firm Third Rock Ventures. Given her background, she thought fundraising would be “more straightforward.” But Mazumdar quickly realized a lot of the peers she had made at Third Rock weren’t yet at the decision-maker level of their respective investment funds. “It was a great launching off point, but I didn’t fully empathize just how big the role would be—always fundraising,” Mazumdar explained, adding that she didn’t realize how much she would internalize the “no”s initially. Business Top 5 VC Raises by Women-Founded Biopharmas Venture capital flow to women-founded companies has stabilized in the post-pandemic environment. BioSpace looks back at five companies that have nabbed the most over the past two decades. December 3, 2025 · 6 min read · Annalee Armstrong Read more “Early on, there is an aspect of being a very young female CEO that’s about building credibility,” she continued. “I had to let the clinical data speak for itself, because I couldn’t just rest on my reputation yet—it hadn’t been built.” Ultimately, Bicara skipped series A, securing an oversubscribed $108 million series B in early 2023. Momentum picked up as ficerafusp alfa began to advance in the clinic, with Bicara closing an oversubscribed $165 million series C by the end of the same year. Less than a year later, Bicara went public . “I got much better at building confidence once our data had matured,” the CEO said. Lucky, multiple times over? As for what the future holds, Mazumdar isn’t completely writing off leading another biotech one day. But for now her focus is on continuing to establish Bicara and build out a pipeline beyond ficerafusp alfa, which Mazumdar believes can serve as a best-in-class treatment for solid tumors. “I got very lucky in helping build and found Bicara because we had a drug,” she said of ficerafusp alfa. “I don’t think people can be super lucky multiple times over, but if I feel the same way about another drug one day, maybe I’ll do it again.” At the end of the day, Mazumdar—and her support system—are driven by the benefit that new therapeutics can bring to patients. “My husband, by pure coincidence, works in the same field of head and neck oncology, and just what we’re seeing with these patients—we’re changing their lives,” Mazumdar smiled. “When we get a letter from a patient about how they were able to see their 50th wedding anniversary because of our drug—that is why we do what we do.” Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a limited-time series featuring first-time women CEOs. Click here to read the first installment.