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/

MIDAS SHARE TIPS: Biotech minnow Avacta set to reap rewards from animal blood test kits



By Joanne Hart, Financial Mail On Sunday

PUBLISHED:22:31, 5 January 2013| UPDATED:22:31, 5 January 2013


Avacta Group is a biotech business whose shares are trading at just over 1p each. The lowly valuation may worry some investors, but this firm, based near Wetherby, West Yorkshire, has real potential.


The group has three divisions. First, it makes a device – the Optim 1000 – which helps drugs companies work out at an early stage whether the products they are working on will ultimately be successful.


As 93 per cent of drugs that enter clinical development never make it to market and developing just one can cost more than £500million, the Optim 1000 can be extremely beneficial and is already used by pharmaceutical companies around the world.





Rapid response: Avacta's machine should help vets treat pets fast

Avacta’s second product, the AX-1, has a rather different target market. It is a desktop machine that performs rapid blood tests.


The company initially developed the device for the veterinary market, simply because new equipment can be launched more quickly and at a lower cost for animals than for humans.






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The AX-1 is being tested by vets and should be launched commercially this year. Each machine will cost about £2,000 but they should prove cost-effective, provided a number of diseases can be tested using them.


Vets will be able to charge for tests but pet owners will receive results within a few minutes and so start to treat their animals faster.


With both the Optim 1000 and the AX-1, Avacta developed the devices and the tests that go inside them, so there are two sources of turnover, one initial and one recurring.


Over time, Avacta chief executive Alastair Smith hopes to introduce the AX-1 to the mainstream medical market, enabling doctors to diagnose a range of diseases more rapidly than at present.


The company’s third arm is extremely exciting. It has pioneered a way of making replacements for antibodies.


Antibodies are used extensively in medical diagnosis and biological and drugs research. However, they are extremely expensive, costing about £1million a gram.


Avacta’s replacements are made synthetically in laboratories so they are hundreds of times cheaper than antibodies. The company moved into this area just a year ago, following the acquisition of a small biotech firm, Aptuscan.


Aptuscan was behind the original creation of these replacement antibodies but Avacta has developed them materially over the past year so they now have far more potential in the commercial world. Smith hopes to use them to expand the number of tests available for the Optim 1000 and the AX-1 and ultimately they could also help to analyse diseases, such as cancer, far more accurately than is currently possible.


Midas verdict: Avacta’s turnover for the year to last July was £3.13million and there was a pre-tax loss of £1.6million, as the business invested in its future.


However, this company should expand substantially over the next five years. It has several strings to its bow, Smith is exceptionally bright and if he can capture even a fraction of the animal health or diagnostics markets, Avacta’s fortunes will be transformed.


Adventurous investors should buy the shares now, at a penny a piece.

up 20%

Kept hold of the shares on the last rise. Seems to be large buying in again.

Bought some last week, perhaps a little early at 1.28 but still holding. Think this will be a long termer but trades don`t always show accurately, you can buy the shares for just over the bid price which record as sells.

A huge swing in favour of buys.

Nice one DC

Again a big swing to buys, should bode well for the near future.

Strong purchasing.

If this buying pace keeps up, this one should come right.

On the move now

Up 7%

I have great hopes for this stock,,,,,,,,the sector is hot at the moment IMO

Strong buying after some profit taking this morning

You will alway's get the profit takers that are happy with their 20%,,,,I'm hanging around for a far bigger chunk from AVCT,,,,,,,,,all IMO

After a couple of weeks of selling, good to see a swing round to buying.

The buying is picking up.

Kept hold of these ? In SM today - Healthcare Technology company Avacta is likely to experience a sales upturn now the latest model of its protein analyser , Optim 2 , is on the shelves. Panmure Gordon has set a 1.75p target.

Interim Results

RNS


RNS Number : 5297D

Avacta Group PLC

30 April 2013








30 April 2013


Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")

Interim Results

Avacta Group plc, a global provider of innovative diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents aimed at reducing the cost of human and animal healthcare, is pleased to announce its interim results for the period ended 31 January 2013.



Highlights


·

Revenue of £1.15 million (2012: £1.72 million) slowed by the transition to the next generation Optim2 product and movements in the US distributor channel


·

Operating loss of £0.97 million (2012: £0.52 million)


·

Loss per share increased to 0.03 pence (2012: 0.02 pence)


·

Optim2 launched globally on 1 February 2013


·

Optim2 distributor transition to ForteBio complete


·

Optim2 order intake since 1 February 2013 of 10 units with over 125 validated prospects in the pipeline


·

Optim consumable cartridge revenue increased 94% year on year to £136,000


·

AX-1 Sensipod field trial with vets concluded and release model of Sensipod now in production


·

Sensipod test menu expanding as commercial launch approaches: several further tests well advanced with commercial availability anticipated shortly after Sensipod launch


·

Affimer reagents development in line with management expectation and first commercial launch planned during 2014

- high throughput Affimer production facility to supply microarray printing established, commissioned and generating Affimers

- library screening facilities operational and being commissioned

- in-house microarray prototyping being optimised and outsource array manufacturing partner selected

- early stage commercial interest in Affimer reagents as antibody replacements strong



Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"As we forecast in our Business Update in February 2013 and Preliminary Results in October 2012, revenues for this period are below last year because Optim sales temporarily slowed as we introduced our next generation, upgraded Optim2 device, and trained up the sales team at ForteBio, the newly acquired subsidiary of our partner Pall Corporation.



"We believe this short-term slow down will be justified long-term as ForteBio, which has a specialist high-end instrument sales team, is now fully trained. Indeed, we have already seen 10 orders for Optim2 since 1 February 2013 and a strong pipeline of prospective orders.



"Further progress has come through our Animal Health division, which has completed field trials of the AX-1 Sensipod, our point-of-care diagnostic system for veterinary clinics. This has allowed us to capture several minor, but nevertheless important improvements that will enhance the user experience. These changes are now incorporated and production of the commercial units is underway. In the period we also advanced the development of further tests for the Sensipod, which gives us confidence that the test menu will grow soon after the commercial launch of the product.



"Finally, we are very excited about the Affimer reagents platform. We have received a lot of interest in Affimers as affinity reagents to replace or compliment antibodies, and also in the Affimer microarrays for drug and biomarker discovery that we have proposed. There has been good progress in setting up the Affimer screening and production facilities which are functional and being optimised and we remain confident of first revenues from Affimers in 2014.



"Over the coming period we anticipate further progress on all fronts and look forward to reporting on this in due course, particularly on first sales of the AX-1 Sensipod product."





- Ends -

Avacta Group: Numis initiates with a target price of 1.70p and a buy recommendation

Conditional Placing to Raise ?4.7 Million

RNS


RNS Number : 5813J

Avacta Group PLC

18 July 2013






THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, JAPAN, SOUTH AFRICA OR AUSTRALIA OR ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IS PROHIBITED.








Press Release

18 July 2013




Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")



Conditional Placing to Raise £4.7 Million





Avacta Group plc (LSE: AVCT) a global provider of innovative diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents aimed at reducing the cost of human and animal healthcare, announces today that it has raised, subject to certain conditions, £4.7 million (before expenses) by way of a placing of 854,545,457 new Ordinary Shares (the "Placing Shares") with both new and existing institutional shareholders at a price of 0.55 pence per Ordinary Share.



The net proceeds of the issue of the Placing Shares of approximately £4.5 million, will be used to accelerate the Group's development and commercialisation of Affimers, to support the early stage commercialisation of the Sensipod in-clinic analyser in the veterinary market and to continue the development of the Optim instrument.



Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta, commented: "We are delighted to have successfully raised these funds through both existing and new shareholders. The Board looks forward to utilising the proceeds of the Placing to build the Life Sciences division of our business, specifically developing the Affimer platform. Although currently at an early stage, the Board sees this as being a key division contributing to revenue growth in our business in future and it is vital that the commercialisation plan is executed effectively. We will also shortly be undertaking commercial roll out of the Sensipod diagnostics system following recent successful field trials.



"It is pleasing that the Placing Price is at a small premium to the middle market share price of 0.535 pence per Ordinary Share on 17 July 2013, and that there was greater demand than the final placing amount."



The Placing Shares will, upon Admission, rank pari passu in all respects with the Ordinary Shares in issue as at that date, including as regards the right to receive all dividends or other distributions declared, made or paid after Admission. The Placing Shares will represent approximately 21.3 per cent. of the Company's enlarged issued ordinary share capital immediately following completion of the Placing.



A general meeting of Avacta in connection with, amongst other things, the Placing will be held at 10.00am on 5 August 2013 at the offices of Walker Morris LLP at Kings Court, 12 King Street, Leeds LS1 2HL.



Further details of the Placing are below.