Avacta Group plc, a UK-based healthcare technology and consumables business, provides innovative and proprietary solutions to the life sciences/healthcare sector through two operating divisions:

Avacta Analytical provides high-end analytical instrumentation and services to the biopharmaceutical sector, expected to be a US$200bn revenue market by 2013 and the fastest growing part of the pharmaceutical industry. The Company’s technologies are aimed at reducing the risks and expense associated with biological drug development and thereby reducing the final cost of drugs to patients. The Company’s lead analytical instrument, Optim, is distributed through Pall Corporation in US and SE Asia, Isogen Life Sciences in Europe, Cold Spring Biotech Corp in China and Taiwan and DKSH in Japan. Avacta sells Optim directly in the UK.

Avacta Animal Health provides diagnostic products and services for the US$1.5bn global veterinary diagnostics market. Its aim is to equip veterinary professionals with high quality animal health and well-being information through point of care diagnostics and laboratory based testing. Avacta’s AX-1 point of care immunoassay system is aimed at providing the veterinarian with rapid blood test results in the clinic. The initial range of tests launched with the AX-1 relates to Avacta’s world leading allergy testing brand Sensitest®. Avacta is developing further assays for the AX-1 system to diagnose a range of diseases in companion animals. Longer term, these technologies will be transferred into the human clinical diagnostics market.

Avacta joined AIM in August 2006 and is based in Wetherby, England.

http://www.avacta.com/

Started watching this one at 1.3p Did some research and watched it drop and now back up to 0.93.

a couple of positive news articles and the launch of it's testing kit to vets.

The real money in this is not the testing kits but the consumables.

The sells shown today are most likely buys, I just brought in and mine was shown as a sell.

from the 16th Sep
Shares in Avacta (AVCT) are up 11% today 0.91p but the hot money is heading in and reckons that the shares could be heading for 2p before too long.

The reason for today’s rise is that the provider of diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents aimed at reducing the cost of human and animal healthcare appointed Dr Matt Johnson to lead the Group's Affimer technology development and production teams. Dr Johnson joins Avacta from Abcam plc where he was Head of R&D.

That is the key. Abcam delivered pretty cracking gains for a range of fund managers over the past few years and they all know Dr Johnson well. Expect more sustained buying from those in the know who reckon that, from here, Avacta shares could easily double.
- See more at: http://www.shareprophets.com/views/1611/hot-money-buys-avacta-at-091p-reckons-2p-on-the-cards#sthash.smUhw6mR.dpuf

FLASH: Numis reiterates buy on Avacta Group, target raised from 1.4p to 1.7p -

See more at: http://www.stockmarketwire.com/article/4675857/FLASH-Numis-reiterates-buy-on-Avacta-Group-target-raised-from-1-point-4p-to-1-point-7p.html#sthash.cGULwgRR.dpuf

Panmure Gordon restated their buy rating on shares of Avacta Group Plc (LON:AVCT) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, AR Network reports. The firm currently has a GBX 1.75 ($0.03) price target on the stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Analysts at Numis Securities Ltd raised their price target on shares of Avacta Group Plc (LON:AVCT) from GBX 1.40 ($0.02) to GBX 1.70 ($0.03) in a research note to investors on Thursday. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

Avacta Group Plc (LON:AVCT) traded down 10.11% on Thursday, hitting GBX 0.80. 2,852,550 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. Avacta Group Plc has a 52 week low of GBX 0.44 and a 52 week high of GBX 1.333. The stock’s 50-day moving average is GBX 0.8 and its 200-day moving average is GBX 0.93.

Avacta Group plc is engaged in healthcare equipment and instrumentation business, provides technologies and services to the life sciences/healthcare sector through two operating divisions: Avacta Analytical and Avacta Animal Health.

First therapeutic licensing agreement for Affimers

RNS


RNS Number : 6942Q

Avacta Group PLC

17 October 2013






17 October 2013

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")



First therapeutic licensing agreement for Affimers



Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare, announces that it has signed a licensing agreement with UK biotechnology company, Blueberry Therapeutics Ltd ("Blueberry"), to use Affimers in the development of new therapies for the treatment of drug resistant bacterial infection.



Under the terms of the deal, Avacta will provide proprietary Affimers to Blueberry for their drug development programmes in infectious diseases. As part of this deal Avacta has already supplied the first lead Affimer.



Affimers are engineered alternatives to antibodies. The platform is based on a small human protein that can be engineered to bind with high specificity and affinity to a wide range of protein targets thereby creating a potentially large menu of affinity reagents. Avacta is focused on the commercialisation of Affimers as reagents for research and Affimer microarrays which provide a powerful drug and biomarker discovery tool. In addition, Avacta is actively seeking licensing opportunities to commercialise Affimers as therapeutics, as with this initial deal with Blueberry.



Commenting on the deal, Alastair Smith CEO of Avacta said: "Our agreement with Blueberry is another important milestone achieved for Avacta by the life sciences division. Whilst Avacta will focus on non-therapeutic applications of the Affimer technology we are very well aware of the potential value as a therapeutic platform and this deal represents the first independent evaluation of our Affimer technology in this area. It also confirms the utility of Affimers as affinity reagents and will raise the profile of Affimers for other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around the World. I look forward to being able update the market on our progress with Affimers as general life sciences reagents and in microarrays, as well as on other therapeutic partnerships, in due course."



John Ridden, CEO of Blueberry said: "We at Blueberry are delighted to be working with Avacta and using their innovative Affimer screening platform to deliver starting points for new medicines. We are looking forward to a long and productive relationship together."

Interesting Comment from Smith, 2nd last paragraph.

Mixed message there or am I reading too much into this.

They are aware of the value as a therapeutic platform, but we not going to do that. More partnerships on the way

or if you want this come and buy us.

WATCH: Avacta Group (AVCT) - Preliminary results

Click here

SP on the move about to go through the .94 resistance

Avacta news in Europe

LISTEN: Dr Alastair Smith, CEO of Avacta Group, discusses the launch of new canine blood test

Click here to listen

WATCH: Dr. Alastair Smith, CEO & Dr. Matt Johnson, Head of R&D at Avacta, give an investor teach-in

Click here to watch

WATCH: Dr. Alastair Smith, CEO of Avacta Group, provides a brief overview of the recent investor briefing

Click here to watch

LISTEN: Avacta Group (AVCT) - Affimers: Technical and commercial update

Click here to listen

Interim Results

RNS


RNS Number : 2671F

Avacta Group PLC

23 April 2014







Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")



Interim Results



Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a global provider of innovative diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare, announces its interim results for the period ended 31 January 2014.



Financial highlights

· Revenues increase by 40% to £1.61m (2013: £1.15m)

· Avacta Animal Health revenues up 12% to £0.82m (2013: £0.73m)

· Avacta Analytical revenues increased 2.5 times to £0.79m (2013: £0.31m)

· 9 Optim units sold (2013: 2 units)

· Gross margins up to 64% (2013: 56%) - due to re-engineering of Optim and product mix

· Underlying operating loss reduced to £0.65m (2013: £0.96m)

· Reported loss after tax reduced to £0.50m (2013: £0.81m)

· Loss per share reduced to 0.01p (31 January 2013: 0.03p)

· Cash at bank £3.25m (31 July 2013: £0.58m)



Operational highlights

· Good progress in Affimers with significant de-risking and advancement of microarray development

· Unique canine lymphoma test launched

· Solid progress in Optim sales particularly in Europe

· Appointment of Dr Trevor Nicholls as Chairman, Dr Matt Johnson to lead Affimer product development and Mr Craig Slater as Group COO

· Placing to raise net proceeds of £4.55m completed in August 2013



Post-period end highlights

· First Affimer revenues through custom Affimer service

· Development of canine pancreatitis test completed

· Dr Michael Albin appointed as Non-executive Director



Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "I am pleased with the performance across the Group overall and in particular with the excellent progress in Avacta Life Sciences. The technical performance of Affimers which demonstrates their competitive advantage against antibodies is now established with good supporting data and it is particularly pleasing to see first revenues.



"It is an exciting time for the Group which is poised for growth not only through its existing businesses in Avacta Animal Health and Avacta Analytical, which are both growing and now contributing positively, but also through the enormous potential for the commercial exploitation of our Affimer platform and I look forward to reporting on progress in all areas in the coming months."

Watch here: Avacta Group (AVCT) - Interim Results for the period ending 31st January 2014

Click here to watch
http://www.brrmedia.co.uk/event/123106/dr-alastair-smith-chief-executive-officer

LISTEN: Rare Earth Minerals (REM) - Sonora Lithium Project

Click here

Avacta Announce Collaboration with UbiQ Bio BV

RNS


RNS Number : 6538G

Avacta Group PLC

09 May 2014






9th May 2014

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")



Avacta announces a collaboration with UbiQ Bio BV



First of a series of new Affimer reagents which opens up an important market that is underserved by antibodies



Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare, is pleased to announce that it has signed a collaboration deal with UbiQ Bio ("UbiQ"), a leading supplier of ubiquitylated peptides and associated assays.



Ubiquitin is a small protein that is found in humans and animals. It is naturally attached to other proteins in the cell in chains of various lengths and differing linear and branched forms. The ubiquitin-proteasome system was discovered in 2004, leading to its discoverers being awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry that year. It has become clear that "ubiquitylation" is a complex "barcode" the purpose of which is poorly understood, but it is thought to be involved in most human diseases and is now one of the most studied processes in biology with huge promise for new therapeutics and diagnostics.



Despite the huge importance of ubiquitylation, and a great deal of effort being expended by antibody companies, only two good antibodies to these various chains have been developed in the last decade. The collaboration with UbiQ, a leading provider of high quality ubiquitylated peptide targets provides Avacta with access to a wide range of the targets needed for screening its Affimer library. The Company will also benefit from the access to UbiQ's experience, network and reputation in the field of ubiquitylation. UbiQ will receive a royalty on sale of ubiquitylation Affimers derived from the targets provided.



Avacta is also very pleased to announce that, where antibodies have struggled, it has generated its first Affimer that binds specifically to an ubiquitin chain target in only a few weeks. Avacta is continuing to build a toolkit of Affimers for the study of ubiquitylation and will make them available as part of an on-line catalogue which will be launched during the summer of 2014.



Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta said: "This is probably the most important landmark in the Affimer story so far. Avacta is continuing to build a toolkit of Affimers for the study of ubiquitylation and will make them available as part of an on-line catalogue which will be launched during the summer of 2014. Despite huge efforts over the past ten years antibody companies have been unsuccessful in building libraries of ubiquitin specific antibodies. Within a few weeks we have generated Affimers to a specific ubiquitin chain. As a result of the recent financing and this collaboration with UbiQ, we now have the technology and resource and access to ubiquitin chains to create large libraries of ubiquitin specific Affimers. I expect to see a strong collaboration develop in this area with UbiQ and for us to grow a flagship catalogue of Affimers to serve this important application in the study of ubiquitylation".



Alfred Nijkerk, Chief Executive of UbiQ commented: "We are very pleased to be working with Avacta to develop Affimers that bind specifically to ubiquitin chains. This is something that we have wanted to achieve with antibodies for a number of years but with no success, so we are delighted that Avacta has had success so early in our collaboration. We are very excited about the future of this partnership."

It is this one more important: Acta secures multiple clean energy electrolysed order. Interview with the CEO at http://goo.gl/8D4Vlh

Avacta Secures Funding Award

RNS


RNS Number : 5190I

Avacta Group PLC

02 June 2014






2 June 2014

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")



Avacta secures funding award to develop Affimers for therapeutic out-licensing



Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare, is pleased to announce that it has secured a Smart Award from the UK's innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, to support its activities in developing the Affimer technology for therapeutic out-licensing.



The Smart Award will contribute towards the development of the data pack to support licensing of Affimers as therapeutic agents. The award will support the development of a high affinity Affimer targeting a key biological pathway involved in several human cancers. Targeting this pathway will allow the creation of a biotherapeutic to meet increasing demand for new drugs for the treatment of cancer. Over the next 18 months, the program of work will include lead identification, assessment of developability criteria for manufacturing and a preclinical target validation study.



To this end Avacta has established Promexus to generate a data pack which will assist in securing the best value commercial partnerships and licensing opportunities in therapeutics. Dr Amrik Basran will be leading this activity in a recently established laboratory at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, located on the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) R&D site. Amrik has over 10 years' experience of both the biotech and pharma industries. Before joining Promexus, he worked for GSK where he acted as Head of Topical Delivery (Biopharm Discovery Unit), supporting the development of biotherapeutics across the GSK portfolio. Amrik was Director of Protein Biosciences at Domantis, before the company was acquired by GSK in 2006 for £230 million and prior to this had spent six years as a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology, Cambridge University.

Avacta announced the first therapeutic licensing deal to Blueberry Therapeutics in October 2013 to use Affimers in the development of new therapies for the treatment of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.



Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta said: "We believe that there is a significant opportunity to generate value for shareholders through out-licensing of the Affimer technology in the therapeutic space. This was confirmed by the recently reported strong interest which we received in Affimers from drug developers at the Protein and Antibody Engineering Summit in Boston last week. In order to secure high value license deals with upfront payments we need to generate data showing that Affimers are suitable in terms of properties like immunogenicity, clearance times, ease of manufacturing scale up and topical delivery. This is the focus for Promexus and the recently granted Smart award is a great validation of the potential of Affimers in this application as well as a financial assistance."



Amrik Basran, Chief Scientific Officer of Promexus commented: "This Smart award will certainly help us to generate the key data on the technology showing that Affimers have great potential to be developed as a therapeutic platform. In this Technology Strategy Board funded project we're focusing on cancer targets as model systems where there is still a high unmet medical need. We believe the intrinsic properties of the Affimer scaffold may bring some additional benefits, primarily due to its small size and stability, which may give greater clinical efficacy to patients compared to current biological therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies. It's great to see that the Technology Strategy Board could also see both the scientific and commercial potential of the technology and provide this financial support to a new UK based biotechnology opportunity."

Major Japanese Distributor Signed

RNS


RNS Number : 2890M

Avacta Group PLC

15 July 2014








Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")



Major Japanese Distributor Signed



Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare, is pleased to announce that it has appointed Cosmo Bio Co Ltd (Cosmo), one of the leading Japanese life sciences R&D suppliers, as distributor in Japan for Affimers.



Cosmo has been selling reagents such as antibodies and enzymes, cell and tissue culture materials, separation and purification systems and protein engineering products in Japan for over 30 years to academic laboratories, research institutes and testing organisations. With a network of around 200 agents throughout Japan and servicing over 400 international manufacturers, Cosmo is one of the largest and most established life sciences reagents and equipment suppliers in Japan.



Affimers are an engineered alternative to antibodies. They have been designed to address many of the negative performance issues currently experienced with antibodies; namely, the time taken to generate new antibodies, specificity and batch to batch variation. Affimers can be engineered to bind with high specificity and affinity to a wide range of protein targets thereby creating a very large menu of affinity reagents to address gaps in the antibody reagents market and compete directly with existing antibody products.



Avacta is now focusing on the commercialisation of Affimers via its custom Affimer services and, later in the year, through an on-line catalogue of reagents. Avacta has secured first sales of Affimers through its services activity in which its extensive library of Affimers is screened to generate binders to new targets provided by the customer. This screening service takes seven weeks from receiving the target to providing the customer with samples of the fully characterised Affimer to be used in the their assay or other process or product. This is in comparison with the many months or even years it can take to generate high quality antibodies to new targets. Avacta is making good progress in populating its Affimer catalogue which will launch in late summer with a range of Affimers against some common targets and also against some high value targets for which antibody companies have failed to generate antibodies.



Cosmo will market and support both the custom Affimer services and the catalogue reagents sales in Japan which is the world's second largest life sciences market according to UK Trade Investment.



Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta said: "Japan is an important market for us and Cosmo are an excellent partner who are associated with some well known reagent suppliers. They have an excellent reputation for customer support and a wide network throughout Japan. We expect to begin generating revenues in Japan first through our custom Affimer services and, later in the year through sales of Affimers from our catalogue which Cosmo will market and support. I look forward to updating the market on this activity and on other partnerships for Affimers in due course."



Toshiaki Kasamatsu, President of Cosmo said: "We are proud to distribute the custom Affimer services and the catalogue reagents into the Japanese research market. Affimers are a quite unique recombinant protein research tool showing specific binding activity. They also show long stability and reproducibility as an alternate to antibodies, and we hope this technology will be used widely in the life science research field. We have a keen desire to support the development of the life science market, and are proud to introduce the Affimer technology in Japan which provides specific advantages to researchers who pursue new understanding in life sciences. Cosmo Bio is pleased to be the best partner for researchers in this field."