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/

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."
 

Who Should Attend?Date:

Thursday 19 October 2017

Venue:

Novotel Tower Bridge, London EC3N 2NR, 10 Pepys Street, London, EC3N 2NR

Event Timings:Sponsored by:

Covance to Present Affimer Data at Conference
RNS
RNS Number : 4911W
Avacta Group PLC
15 November 2017
 
 
 
15 November 2017
 
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta", "the Group" or "the Company")
 
Covance to Present Affimer Data at European Conference
 
 
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and reagents, is pleased to announce that Covance will be presenting Affimer data from a joint study at the European Bioanalysis Forum 15-17 November 2017 in Barcelona. 
 
Covance will be presenting data that highlights the validation of Affimer as a critical reagent in clinical assays when good batch-to-batch stability and reproducible performance are a regulatory requirement. 
 
The work carried out collaboratively between Avacta and Covance shows that an Affimer assay to detect and quantify the breast cancer drug Trastuzumab shows good sensitivity and increased assay dynamic range compared to current existing antibody based assays. 
 
The study demonstrates that Affimer reagents have the potential to be used as alternatives to antibodies and natural ligands as critical reagents in regulated assays in the development and batch release of therapeutic antibodies.
 
Dr Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"Presentation of Affimer data by our partners is strong, independent validation of the technical performance of Affimer reagents and is important to our commercialisation of the technology.  The Group is delighted that the results of this work will be presented at this important European conference by Covance, a global contract research organization that that has worked on all of the top 50 best-selling drugs available today.
 
Reagents such as antibodies or ligand proteins, currently used in regulated bioanalysis of therapeutic proteins have their limitations.  Cost and batch-to-batch variability is a serious and costly issue in critical assays.  The work with Covance shows that Affimers can provide a rapid solution in such assays and additionally benefit from stability of supply.
 
We are now working to capitalise on the commercial opportunity that this presents and I look forward to updating the market on progress in due course."

15 Nov
finnCap
200.00
Corporate