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/

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."

Pre Close Trading Update

RNS


RNS Number : 9659N

Avacta Group PLC

01 August 2014








1 August 2014

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or "the Group")



Pre-close trading update



Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare provides the following trading update for the year ended 31 July 2014.



Revenues for the year ended 31 July 2014 grew by approximately 18% to £3.2m (2013: £2.7m) and EBITDA before non-recurring items is anticipated to be in line with market expectations. In May 2014, the Group was successful in raising £10.2 million gross proceeds through a placing of new ordinary shares with both new and existing shareholders to strengthen the balance sheet and support the Group's future development, specifically in the development and commercialisation of Affimers, Avacta's proprietary antibody replacement technology. Over the course of the year, the Group has strengthened the Board with the addition of Craig Slater as Chief Operating Officer and Dr Michael Albin and Dr Trevor Nicholls as Non-Executive Directors.



The Group would like to provide a short update on Avacta's three businesses:



Avacta Life Sciences

During the reporting period, the Group has demonstrated with scientific data that Affimers substantially resolve the negative performance issues associated with antibodies, and therefore provide significant competitive advantages. In addition, the technical processes for the development and manufacturing of Affimers have been established and the Group completed a fund raise to support expansion of the commercial and operational activities. The implementation of this expansion plan is on schedule and the next major milestone is the launch of the Affimer catalogue which is scheduled to happen in September 2014. During the reporting period, key staff have been recruited, including Dr Matt Johnson (CTO), who was previously the Head of R&D at Abcam plc, and Michael Vinegrad (Head of Digital Marketing) who was previously Communications and Marketing Specialist at Smith and Nephew plc.



Several commercial partnerships have been established including a license agreement with Blueberry Therapeutics Limited, a commercial collaboration with Ubiq Bio BV and a distribution partnership for the Japanese market with Cosmo Bio. First orders for custom Affimer reagents were also secured from a handful of academic and commercial customers and sales and marketing collateral and delivery capability is now in place to allow business development to accelerate. The Directors believe that no technical hurdles to this commercialisation remain and the Group is now focused on the expansion of the commercial and operational teams that are required to support sales growth.



Avacta Animal Health

Revenues from the Group's reference laboratory services and diagnostic kits grew by approximately 7% to £1.6m (2013: £1.5m). New canine lymphoma and pancreatitis tests, available as pay per click algorithms, are expected to contribute to performance in the next financial year along with the sales of their constituent diagnostic kits. Progress with the Group's in-clinic diagnostic device, Sensipod, has been further delayed. The development of a number of new assays for Sensipod has highlighted that the production of the immuno-capture surface, which binds the analyte from the sample for detection, is introducing variability in the test results which is not acceptable. In order to implement high value tests such as the canine lymphoma and pancreatitis tests on Sensipod, which will strongly differentiate the product in the market, the method of preparing the capture surface is being improved. Considerable effort has been expended on improving the capture surface consistency over the past six months and good progress is being made towards a high volume, routine manufacturing process that yields test reproducibility considerably better than existing point of care technologies.



Avacta Analytical

Revenues achieved by the Group's Optim product grew by approximately 25% to £1.5m (2012: £1.2m). Optim sales have matched management's expectations in Europe through its direct sales team, and in Japan through its exclusive distributor. However, performance in the key North American market has been below management expectations. Avacta Analytical has therefore altered its strategy to serve this market directly alongside its current commercial partner, which will become a non-exclusive distributor. This change in strategy is likely to lead to an initial slower period of sales as Avacta Analytical builds its capability and pipeline in North America.



Date of Preliminary Results

The Group expects to release its Preliminary Results on Thursday, 16 October 2014.



- Ends -

Final Results

RNS


RNS Number : 4283U

Avacta Group PLC

16 October 2014






16 October 2014

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta", the "Group" or the "Company")



Year end Results



Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a global provider of research reagents, consumables and equipment to the life sciences and animal care markets, announces its audited results for the year ended 31 July 2014.



Operational highlights


·

Affimer technological and operational readiness confirmed and commercialisation phase begun


·

Affimer production, discovery and validation processes set up to meet early commercial plans


·

Senior technical and commercial hires including ex Head of R&D and ex Head of Strategic Accounts Europe of Abcam plc


·

Board strengthened with three new appointments; Trevor Nicholls as Chairman, Michael Albin as Non-executive and Craig Slater as Chief Operating Officer


·

Placing to raise gross proceeds of £10.3m completed in May 2014




Financial highlights


·

Revenue of £3.18m (2013: £2.70m)

§ Avacta Animal Health revenues of £1.59m (2013: £1.50m)

§ Avacta Analytical revenues of £1.56m (2013: £1.20m)

§ Debut Avacta Life Sciences revenues of £0.03m


·

Gross margins up to 64% (2013: 56%)


·

Adjusted EBITDA1 loss reduced to £1.10m (2013: £1.46m)


·

Adjusted loss before tax1 reduced to £1.81m (2013: £1.92m)


·

Reported loss before tax of £2.04m (2013: £1.85m)


·

Year-end cash at bank of £11.48m (2013: £0.58m)


·

Loss per share of 0.04p (2013: 0.05p loss)




Post-period end highlights


·

Online Affimer catalogue launched


·

Commercial appetite for the potential of the application of Affimer technology to therapeutic markets established




Note 1: Excluding non-recurring administrative expenses principally relating to restructuring costs and overhead that will not recur during the period ending 31 July 2015 following the restructuring.



Commenting on the results, Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"Important goals for Avacta this year were to demonstrate that no technical hurdles remained for the scale up of operations and commercialisation of Affimers and then to raise the funding required to execute our strategy. I am delighted that we have achieved these key milestones and attracted the support of new shareholders in the process.



"It is very early days in the commercialisation of Affimers but I am pleased to say that all indications are positive and, having put in place an outstanding and experienced commercial team, I am looking forward to reporting on progress during the coming financial year."

Affimer Development Contract with Protatonce
RNS
RNS Number : 3338E
Avacta Group PLC
09 February 2015





9 February 2015

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or "the Group")



Partnership to develop Affimer assays for the market leading multiplex platform



Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare announces that it has entered into a commercial partnership with ProtATonce, an approved Luminex partner, to develop and commercialise high performance multiplexed assays for the Luminex platform using Affimers.



ProtATonce is one of a number of exclusive Luminex partners selected to develop and commercialise multiplexed assays on the market leading Luminex xMAPTM platform which enables large numbers of biological tests to be conducted and analysed quickly using bead based assay kits. The bead based assay market is worth $270m and around half of these assays are run using Luminex assay kits. ProtATonce specializes in developing high quality assays with high degrees of multiplexing to support the pharmaceutical industry in drug discovery, mode of action analysis and drug repositioning.



The Luminex technology itself is powerful and capable of carrying out up to 500 tests in one experiment, but this high level of multiplexing is only possible if the antibodies that are used in the test kits are specific and show no cross reactivity between tests. However, the cross reactivity of antibodies practically limits the degree of multiplexing of the Luminex technology to around 50 tests.



Under the terms of the agreement Avacta will provide Affimers to ProtATonce who will develop Affimer based assays that take advantage of the engineered specificity of Affimers to unlock the high multiplexing potential of the Luminex platform. The aim is for ProtATonce to develop assay kits with market leading, disruptive levels of multiplexing and commercialise these through larger commercial partners. Avacta will be entitled to a 50% share of future revenues derived from the Affimer based Luminex test kits with an agreed minimum annual sales level.





Dr Alastair Smith, Group Chief Executive commented:

"The Luminex platform is the market leading bead based multiplexed assay platform and the potential of Affimers to overcome the problems of antibody cross reactivity which limit the overall performance of the technology is very exciting.



ProtATonce has an excellent reputation for developing high quality, highly multiplexed assays and they are an excellent partner for us to work with to establish Affimers in the Luminex assay market. Indeed, all multiplexed assay platforms are ultimately limited by the specificity of the affinity reagents and therefore proving Affimers on the Luminex platform will open up the wider multiplexed assay market.



I have no doubt that if we are successful in developing Luminex assays with market leading degrees of multiplexing then these products will become very attractive to a number of larger commercial partners in this market."



Dr Leonidas Alexopoulos, Chief Executive of ProtATonce said: "



"Affimers provide an exceptional alternative to antibodies. Their small size, specificity, and robustness make them ideal candidates for multiplex assays. This agreement with Avacta gives us the opportunity to develop multiplex assays using the Affimer technology. If successful, we are talking about the next big step in protein detection and a disruptive product for the multiplex market "



- Ends -

Sale of Optim Trade and Assets
RNS
RNS Number : 6944E
Avacta Group PLC
12 February 2015



12 February 2015

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or "the Group")



Sale of Optim Trade and Assets

Strategic Focusing of Group's Activities



Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare announces, it has completed a sale of the trade and selected assets of its Optim product ("Optim") to Unchained Labs Inc.



The Group will receive up to $5 million in cash, with $3.5 million received as initial consideration and up to $1.5 million to be received dependent on the future sales performance of the product over the period to 31 December 2019.



Optim formed substantially all of the Avacta Analytical operating segment of the Group's operations and, for the year ended 31 July 2014, this operating segment reported revenues of £1.6 million and an operating profit of £0.1 million. The Group's carrying value for Optim is approximately £1.7 million, which includes a related deferred tax liability of approximately £0.4 million.



In addition, the Group carried a non-cash, non-current intangible asset of goodwill related to the Avacta Analytical operating segment of £4.9 million which will be charged to the income statement.



Following the sale of Optim, the Group will apply the proceeds of the sale primarily towards the continuing development and commercialisation of its Affimer technology.



Dr Alastair Smith, Group Chief Executive commented:

"For some time now, the principle focus of the Group's resources has been on the Affimer opportunity and the sale of the Optim product is strategically important as it allows the Group to focus even more intensively on the development and commercialisation of Affimers.



"Optim is now established as a product in its market and the opportunity is substantial for an acquirer with significant sales and marketing resources to put behind it.



"The Group has a huge opportunity with the Affimer technology to grow significant value for shareholders. It is important for us to focus on that and I am therefore pleased that we have been able to take this strategic step."

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

12 Feb Numis 1.50 Buy
12 Feb Panmure Gordon 1.75 Buy

Avacta shares up after "transformational" deal with US biotech firm Moderna

By Andrew Neil

May 18 2015, 1:20pm
Moderna will make an upfront payment of US$500,000 giving it exclusive access to Affimers, Avacta’s engineered proteins which work as a high-tech alternative to antibodies.
Moderna will make an upfront payment of US$500,000 giving it exclusive access to Affimers, Avacta’s engineered proteins which work as a high-tech alternative to antibodies.


Shares in life sciences company Avacta Group (LON:AVCT) climbed by as much as a quarter after it told investors it had signed a deal with US biotech firm Moderna Therapeutics.

Under the terms, Massachusetts-based Moderna will make an upfront payment of US$500,000 giving it exclusive access to Affimers, Avacta’s engineered proteins which work as a high-tech alternative to antibodies.

Moderna caught investors’ attention in January after it told the market it had successfully raised US$450mln - the largest private biotech fundraise on record.

The business researches and develops protein therapies based on novel messenger Ribonucleic acid (RNA) technology and already has major development deals with AstraZeneca (LON:ANZ) and Alexion.

The Avacta deal will see Moderna make certain payments for Avacta’s research services to deliver pre-clinical development milestones.

Moderna also has the option to enter into exclusive license agreements for selected therapeutic Affimer candidates for clinical development.

In each case, Avacta will be entitled to milestone payments and the firm reckons the total value of these payments could reach “several tens of millions of dollars”.

Earlier this year Avacta sold Optim, a machine designed to speed up and reduce the cost of drug development, for up to £3.3mln in order to focus on Affimers.

Alastair Smith, Avacta's chief executive, described the deal as "transformational".

"The Moderna agreement represents a significant opportunity for Avacta with tangible, near term revenues from upfront payments and research services, with additional milestone payments and royalties on future sales of therapeutics," he said.

Analysts at Numis upgraded their price target on Avacta shares to 1.7p, from 1.5p.

“Assuming Moderna chooses to take four Affimers into full pre-clinical development, we estimate that its current highly-discounted value to Avacta is £10mln (0.2p/share),” said the broker.

It added that the deal is also evidence of major biotechnology interest in Affimer technology, “de-risking the technology, and providing Avacta with newsflow that we would expect other potential customers to investigate.”

Shares were 25% higher at 1.1p and have risen 70% year-to-date.

18 May Numis 1.70 Buy

Proactive investor -


City broker expecting big things from Avacta
Share
10:45 01 Nov 2016
finnCap expects the group to more than double its share price within the next year as it continues to develop its Affimer PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors

Checkpoint inhibitors are the hot topic in cancer treatment right now
City broker finnCap reckons cancer treatment specialist Avacta Group PLC (LON:AVCT) can more than double its share price in the coming year if it continues to progress at its current rate.
Avacta has been focusing on its Affimer checkpoint inhibitors – the current hot topic in the world of cancer treatment – in recent months, which has yielded some impressive, albeit early, data.
A pharmacokinetics study showed that the Affimer molecules can remain in the bloodstream long enough to have a positive effect and re also well tolerated.
An efficacy study involving mice also showed that the molecule significantly reduced tumour growth in the animal.
“These data demonstrate that Affimers possess the right pharmacological properties requires for a drug to potentially be an effective treatment,” said finnCap in a note today.
“Whilst we accept that these are still early animal data, they do significantly de-risk the Affimer technology as a potential therapeutic platform.”
It makes no change to its 200p target price and expects this to be more than achievable if Avacta meets its stated preclinical milestones over the next 12 months.
Shares currently sit at 91p, which means finnCap sees significant headroom for growth – 120% to be accurate.
Checkpoint inhibitors – all the rage but what exactly are they?
Back in the ‘90s, scientists discovered that human cells carry certain proteins on their surface that allow the immune system to recognise it as a ‘good’ cell and leave it alone.
Shortly after, it was discovered that many cancer cells wear one of those same proteins – called PD-L1 – allowing them to deceive the immune system and evade any attacks.
Avacta – along with a host of other pharmaceutical firms – has been focusing on creating ‘checkpoint inhibitors’ that block this PD-L1 protein, which, in theory, allow the immune system to “see” the cancer cells and launch an attack against them.
The science behind them has yielded some impressive data in recent years and early stage clinical trials are showing promise as well, although it is worth noting that the technology is still in its relative infancy.

Growth & Innovation Forum 2017


Tuesday 31st January 2017

MEET YOUR NEXT GROWTH COMPANY INVESTMENT

Click here to REGISTER now


Share price performance of some of the companies that attended the last event include:

Cyan +43%

Instem + 44%

Satellite Solutions Worldwide +79%

Summit Therapeutics +32%

XLMedia +46%


The Growth and Innovation Forum, organised in partnership with Cenkos Securities and Shares, is in its 5th year and is the UK's only growth and technology company investment show.

Thousands of investors have attended our previous shows. This year attendees will be able to:

· Learn from industry experts and influencers about the markets, the technology sector and individual companies

· Find out from fund managers how they view the future in 2017 and beyond

· Meet the directors of up to 40 listed growth companies

· Listen to presentations from our expert team of Shares journalists


Key note Speakers at the Show include:

Daniel Coatsworth, Editor - Shares

Russ Mould, Investment Director - AJ Bell

Richard Penny, Senior Fund Manager - Legal & General UK Alpha Trust

Simon Strong, Head of Research, Growth Companies - Cenkos Securities

Further keynote speakers to be announced.


Presenting at the Show and available to meet during the day will be a number of listed company CEOs and Directors:

Andrew Newland, CEO - ANGLE

Alastair Smith, CEO - Avacta

Rachel Elias-Jones, CFO - Bango

Keith Butcher, CFO - Blancco Technology Group

Terry Hart, CFO - CityFibre

Simon Cleaver, CEO - CloudCall

Jamal Rushdy, CEO - Collagen Solutions

John Cronin, Executive Chairman - CyanConnode

Philipp Prince, CFO - Defenx

Frontier IP Group

Phil Reason, CEO - Instem

Steve Flavell, co-CEO - LoopUp

Jose Luis Vazquez, CEO - Mirada

Ian Smith, CEO - One pm Finance

Plastics Capital

Mark Braund, CEO - RedstoneConnect

Simon Kings, Executive Director - TP Group

David Richards, Interim Chairman, President, CEO & Co-founder - WANdisco

More companies to be announced.


For more information go to the event website here

Diagnostics firm take rights to several Affimers
RNS
RNS Number : 0419D
Avacta Group PLC
24 April 2017
 
24 April 2017
 
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
 
Top three global diagnostics company takes exclusive rights to several Affimer reagents
 
Important value inflection point validating commercial potential of Affimer technology and Company's business model
 
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and research reagents, is pleased to report that an evaluation of the Affimer technology by a large, global diagnostics developer has concluded successfully and that the third party has taken exclusive rights to several Affimer reagents for an undisclosed sum.
 
The Company has adopted a licensing business model for its Affimer technology and has, over the past year, established a number of paid-for evaluations of the technology by third parties with a view to securing commercial agreements to develop Affimer based products. This is the first such evaluation to conclude and it has led to an agreement to provide exclusivity for certain Affimers which are relevant in a large diagnostic market. This is an important commercial step and a validation of the significant potential of the licensing business model.
 
Details of the commercial terms and the proposed use of the Affimer reagents cannot be disclosed due to confidentiality.
 
Dr Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:
 
"We believe this deal is a key value inflection point for the Company. We have provided numerous Affimer reagents to customers for in-house research use, but this the first successful conclusion of a technical evaluation of the Affimer technology leading to the third party taking exclusive rights to certain Affimers with product development in mind. This is fundamental to the licensing business model that underpins the future growth of the Affimer reagents business and as such this first deal is hugely important commercial progress.
 
Securing the first agreement arising from the successful conclusion of an Affimer technology evaluation was an objective that we set for 2017 and so I am delighted to be able to report that we have hit this milestone early in the year. I look forward to reporting on further such successes in the near future as well as reporting on progress in our Affimer therapeutic programmes."
 
 

Picked a few up early today.

Topped up, could do well.

Avacta to Present at BioTrinity 2017
RNS
RNS Number : 7905D
Avacta Group PLC
02 May 2017
 
2 May 2017
 
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
 
Avacta to Present at BioTrinity 2017
 
 
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and research reagents, is pleased to announce that its Chief Executive, Alastair Smith, will be presenting at BioTrinity 2017, Europe's leading Biopartnering and Investment Conference, to be held on 9-10 May at the Novotel  London West.
 
Founded and produced by OBN, BioTrinity is now in its 11th year. BioTrinity continues to grow with more than 1000 senior executives and decision makers from emerging and established companies across the life sciences sector and investment firms expected to attend.
 
Avacta's Chief Executive, Alastair Smith, will be presenting in the Company Showcase Therapeutics Track at 1440 in the Alsace Room. The Company will also be exhibiting at stand 44.
 
 
ENDS

Presenting at the Hardman Private Investor Forum
RNS
RNS Number : 2489E
Avacta Group PLC
05 May 2017
 
5 May 2017
 
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
 
Avacta to Present at the Hardman Private Investor Forum
 
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and research reagents, is pleased to announce that its Chief Executive, Alastair Smith, will be presenting at the Hardman Private Investor Forum on Tuesday 9th May in London at the University of Liverpool, 33 Finsbury Square, EC2A 1AG.
 
The evening event, which begins with registration at 17:30, provides an opportunity for investors to hear about the Company's Affimer® technology, its development plans and to discuss these with Alastair, Philippe Cotrel, the Company's Chief Commercial Officer, and with Dr Trevor Nicholls, Chairman of the Board.
 
 

Hardman Research: De-risking Moderna's partnership
RNS
RNS Number : 4860E
Avacta Group PLC
08 May 2017
 
Hardman Research: De-risking of the partnership with Moderna
De-risking of the partnership with Moderna: Avacta is the proprietary owner of Affimer technology for the development of bio-therapeutics, diagnostic tests and research reagents. Affimers represent a radical alternative to established antibody technology which dominates the drug industry despite its limitations. Moderna was the first to enter into an agreement with Avacta to use the Affimer technology, in tandem with Moderna's mRNA drug delivery platform. Moderna has just disclosed Phase I trial data for its mRNA technology which is the first public evidence that it works, which meaningfully de-risks the partnership plans to deliver Affimer therapeutics using mRNA

Key Affimer Patent To Be Granted in China
RNS
RNS Number : 5817E
Avacta Group PLC
10 May 2017
 
10 May 2017
 
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
 
Key Affimer patent to be granted in China
 
Important step towards addressing the potentially large Chinese diagnostics and therapeutics markets
 
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and research reagents, is pleased to announce that the principal patent protecting the Affimer technology has been accepted for grant in the People's Republic of China[1]. On issuance, this patent will extend coverage of Avacta's intellectual property into another potentially large market for the Company; considering the therapeutic applications of Affimers alone, China now accounts for more than one fifth of the global therapeutic antibody market[2].
 
Counterparts to this patent have already been granted in the US, Europe and Japan.
 
The Affimer technology is based on a small protein that has been engineered to present a "sticky" surface that can be made to bind strongly and specifically to a target of interest such as another protein or virus. The way in which the Affimer has been engineered to give it the ability to bind a target is the core invention covered by Avacta's intellectual property.
 
The Company is commercialising the Affimer technology through a licensing model to developers of diagnostic and research products, and is building a pipeline of Affimer drugs both in-house and with partners. Protection of the Company's intellectual property in China is an important step in creating commercial partnering opportunities to address the Chinese diagnostic and biopharmaceutical markets.
 
Dr Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:
 
"The grant of a robust patent to cover the core Affimer intellectual property in China adds further strength to our global intellectual property position.  
 
We continue to develop the core technology and I look forward to updating the market regarding further expansion of our Affimer intellectual property estate in due course." 
 
ENDS
 
Notes to Editors
 
For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:
 
Avacta Group plc
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer
Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial Officer
 
Tel:  +44 (0) 844 414 0452
www.avacta.com
finnCap Ltd
Geoff Nash / Giles Rolls - Nominated Adviser
Tim Redfern / Alice Lane - Corporate Broking
 
WG Partners
Nigel Birks / Nigel Barnes
David Wilson / Claes Spang
Tel:  +44 (0) 207 220 0500
www.finncap.com
 
 
Tel:  +44 (0) 203 705 9318
Tel:  +44 (0) 203 705 9217
www.wgpartners.co.uk
 
Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Media)
Katie Odgaard
 
FTI Consulting (Financial Media and IR)
Simon Conway / Natalie Garland-Collins
Tel: +44 (0)7787 502 947
katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com 
 
Tel: +44 (0) 203 727 1000
avacta@fticonsulting.com
 
About Avacta Group plc (www.avacta.com)
 
Avacta's principal focus is on its proprietary Affimer® technology which is a novel engineered alternative to antibodies that has wide application in Life Sciences for diagnostics, therapeutics and general research and development.
 
Antibodies dominate markets worth in excess of $50bn despite their shortcomings. Affimer technology has been designed to address many of these negative performance issues, principally; the time taken to generate new antibodies, the reliance on an animal's immune response, poor specificity in many cases, and batch to batch variability. Affimer technology is based on a small protein that can be quickly generated to bind with high specificity and affinity to a wide range of protein targets.
 
Avacta has a pre-clinical biotech development programme with an in-house focus on immuno-oncology and bleeding disorders as well as partnered development programmes. Avacta is commercialising non-therapeutic Affimer reagents through licensing to developers of life sciences research tools and diagnostics.

2 Biotech's Licence Affimers for Research Use
RNS
RNS Number : 7379F
Avacta Group PLC
22 May 2017
 
22 May 2017
 
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
 
Two US biotech companies licence Affimer reagents for research use
 
Exclusive licence deals follow successful custom Affimer evaluations
 
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and research reagents, is pleased to announce that two leading US biotech companies have separately taken exclusive rights to Affimer reagents for research and development use, to support their respective drug development programmes.
 
Avacta has developed the Affimer technology platform to provide proprietary, high quality reagents to Life Sciences companies for therapeutic, diagnostic and research use. The Company continues to deliver on its licensing model under which it provides bespoke Affimer reagents, via fully funded development projects, for third party research use, incorporation into both diagnostic and other products, and for therapeutic development. 
 
Following technical evaluations, Avacta has agreed exclusive licensing arrangements for bespoke Affimer reagents with two US based biotech companies. In line with deals of this nature and sensitivity commercial terms cannot be disclosed.
 
The first, a global top fifteen biotech company, needed an Affimer reagent to capture a human protein with no cross-reactivity against the same protein from other species commonly used in drug development, such as rodent. No antibodies exist that are capable of providing this "species specificity" and the new Affimer reagent will allow the biotech partner to develop previously unavailable assays to support its drug development activities. A number of Affimer reagents which met these demanding criteria were generated by Avacta and, under the terms of the agreement, the biotech partner has been allowed to take exclusive rights to one of those Affimer molecules for research use.
 
The second, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, wished to detect a certain human protein, mutations of which are known to lead to worse overall survival rates in some cancers. This protein is one of a group of very similar proteins and no antibodies are available that can differentiate reliably between the different members of this protein family. Avacta was able to generate several Affimer reagents that met these requirements and the US biopharmaceutical company has taken exclusive rights to one of these Affimer reagents to support its in-house drug discovery programmes in oncology.
 
Dr Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"These two custom Affimer reagent licensing deals are further evidence of the ability of Affimer technology to meet challenging requirements for use in real world applications when, to date, antibodies have been unable to provide a satisfactory solution.
 
At this early stage of commercialisation such successes are important factors in building awareness and adoption of the Affimer technology, which is key to allowing us to deliver on our strategy of executing therapeutic and diagnostic licensing deals.
 
This excellent progress follows the recent exclusive licensing deal with a top three global diagnostics company and I look forward to being able to update the market again in the near future." 
 
ENDS

Trading Update
RNS
RNS Number : 2177N
Avacta Group PLC
07 August 2017
 
07 August 2017
 
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
 
Trading Update and Notice of Results
 
Significant progress and substantial de-risking of the Affimer therapeutics platform
 
Commercial traction for Affimer reagents building and multiple licenses agreed
 
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and reagents, is pleased to provide a business and trading update ahead of its results for the year ending 31 July 2017, which the Company expects to announce in full on Wednesday 4th October 2017.
 
Highlights
 
Affimer Therapeutics
 
·      Excellent progress in primary immuno-oncology programme (PD-L1 inhibitor)
o  Multiple Affimer PD-L1 inhibitors generated and a lead Affimer selected for further development
o  Programme remains on track for first-in-man clinical trials in 2019
o  Clear indication of efficacy in industry standard mouse syngeneic model
·      Discovery programme delivering a pipeline of Affimer binders to other important immuno-oncology targets
·      Excellent progress has been made in building a pre-clinical dataset underpinning and significantly de-risking the broader Affimer biotherapeutic opportunity. For example:
o  Insignificant risk of immunogenicity of Affimer technology demonstrated in first major trials on human samples
o  Good pharmacokinetics of therapeutic Affimers shown in in vivo models
o  Efficacy of Affimer therapeutic demonstrated for the first time in an animal model
o  Good production yields of several important therapeutic Affimer formats confirmed
o  Rapid time scale for new Affimer discovery demonstrated with multiple targets in immuno-oncology: major competitive advantage
·      Partnership with Moderna expanded to include more drug targets
·      Collaboration signed with Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to show potential of Affimer based CAR-T therapies: reporting H1 2018
·      Collaboration with Glythera established to demonstrate suitability of Affimers as the targeting molecule in drug conjugates: reporting H2 2017
 
Affimer Research and Diagnostics Reagents
 
·      Strong growth in pipeline of paid-for Affimer technology evaluations with order book up 64% YOY. Focus on commercial licensing opportunities with pharma, biotech, diagnostic and life science tools companies. Examples include:
o  Affimers for purification of therapeutic products from biological samples generated for a North American life sciences company: evaluation progressing well with potential for commercial licensing
o  Multiple Affimers provided to a large biotech to assist with drug/target structural studies in oncology
o  Affimers for point-of-care testing provided to a large global consumer test developer for evaluation and potential licensing
·      Evaluations now beginning to deliver licensing agreements and repeat business that will underpin medium and long term revenue growth
o  First license for development agreed with one of the top three global diagnostics companies
o  More than ten Affimer R&D licenses agreed for in-house use and repeat business generated
o  Reagents evaluations with pharma and biotech also leading to potential therapeutics interest
 
Financial
 
·      Revenues for the year ended 31 July 2017 anticipated to increase by 27% to £2.75m (2016: £2.17m) in line with market forecasts
·      Cash position well ahead of market expectation at £13m (2016: £19.5m)
·      Loss before interest and taxation (LBIT) is expected to be in line with market forecasts at £7.9m (2016: £5.7m)
 
Other Highlights
 
·      Affimer intellectual property portfolio
o  Development of third generation of the Affimer technology (further improved biophysical properties and broad IP coverage) completed and patent application filed in July 2017
o  First generation Affimer technology patents granted in EU, US and China
·      Two new facilities completed in Wetherby and Cambridge totaling around 20,000 sq ft
·      Avacta Life Sciences team grown to 68
 
Dr Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"I am very pleased indeed with the significant commercial and technical progress that has been made in the past twelve months. Interest in the Affimer technology from pharma and biotech is growing as the technology becomes better known and its technical benefits are demonstrated by data emerging from our in-house programmes. Additionally, the results of our immunogenicity study substantially de-risks the Affimer platform from a therapeutics perspective, and gives us confidence as we aim to move our first Affimer drug candidate into the clinic in 2019. I am confident that this strong progress will lead to transformational therapeutic licensing deals in due course.
 
We are also seeing very good growth in the number of paid-for custom Affimer projects and evaluations in the diagnostics and research markets and I am delighted that we have been able to report the signing of the first agreement for Affimer product development following a technology evaluation by one of the world's largest diagnostics developers. A number of other evaluations are advancing positively and we believe that these will lead to further licensing deals which would result in long term royalty based revenue growth from non-therapeutic applications.
 
I look forward to updating the market with the Company's Preliminary Results in early October at which time I will also be providing a detailed update on the therapeutic development plans and pipeline."