OPTIM Product Launch

Avacta Group plc

Product Launch - Flagship biophysical analysis instrument

Cost saving analysis technology for biological drug developers

Avacta Group plc ("Avacta" or the "Company"), the company providing innovative,
high value technologies and services to the pharmaceutical and diagnostics
markets, is pleased to announce the launch of its flagship technology product,
`Optim.'

Biopharmaceuticals are complex, fragile and considered difficult to
characterise during research and development. This makes it difficult for drug
developers to identify those products with the highest likelihood of reaching
market. Consequently, the failure rate of products in development is high
-leading to considerable costs in bringing a product to market and long
development timescales.

Optim is a high-end bench top laboratory instrument designed to perform
advanced biophysical analysis on very small samples of biopharmaceuticals and
other biological samples. This allows drug developers to acquire vital
information about their compounds' performance at an early stage, helping them
to reduce the risk of late stage failure and to bring optimised products to
market quicker and more cheaply.

Optim fills a significant gap in the market through providing detailed analysis using
only very small sample volumes. For the first time this enables drug developers to
gain vital information about product performance in the early stages of product
development when very limited quantities of material are available. Its ease
of use means that its advanced analysis can be widely accessed by non-expert
users thereby broadening the potential market size. Avacta is also developing
follow-on products that will, when added to Optim, deliver a comprehensive
"protein analysis workstation" for drug developers.

The Company believes that there is a substantial market readily accessible in
the near term through Avacta's existing market reach, created by its contract
services business, as well as a larger worldwide market to be accessed through
commercial partners. Optim has no known direct competition and can be targeted
at other fields of protein research in industry. The ultimate size of the
addressable opportunity for the product is therefore very significant.

A presentation to showcase the technology will be given today by the management
of Avacta at 10:30am at the offices of Haggie Financial LLP, 10 Fenchurch Ave,
EC3M 5BN. To attend please contact Nicholas Nelson or Kathy Boate.

Alastair Smith, Chief Executive, Avacta, commented:

"Optim is the first in a range of high value analytical products for the
biopharmaceutical sector which Avacta has under development and we believe that
the substantial benefits it has to offer to end users are very clear.

"Avacta is capable of using biophysics to revolutionise the way in which
biological samples, such as biopharmaceuticals or clinical samples, can be
analysed rapidly. In delivering an instrument for biopharmaceutical developers,
we have targeted the largest immediate market that Avacta can address and we
are looking forward to the wider application of our core technology in
diagnostics and elsewhere.

"I am delighted that this important point has been reached as planned and
within budget, which is a testament to the development team, and I look forward
to reporting on the continuing progress of the Company."

                                                                  23 April 2009

Enquiries:

Avacta Group plc                       Tel: [phone]                    
                                                                             
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer                                                                          
Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer     www.avacta.com                        
                                                                             
Haggie Financial LLP                   Tel: [phone]                    
                                                                             
Nicholas Nelson / Kathy Boate          [e-mail]          
         
                                                                    
Nominated Adviser:                     Tel: [phone]                    
                                                                             
Daniel Stewart & Company Plc                                                 
                                                                             
Charlotte Stranner/Simon Leathers                                            
       
                                                                      
Novum Securities Limited               Tel: [phone]                    
                                                                             
Henry Turcan                                                                 


Notes to Editors:

About Avacta

Avacta was spun-out from the University of Leeds in 2004 by its current
management team as a biophysics company, with the aim of combining the
disciplines of physics and biology to develop innovative technologies and
expert technical services to address needs in the pharmaceutical, defence and
clinical diagnostics markets. Avacta has a core bio-analytical technology
development programme addressing the needs of the biopharmaceutical sector to
fully characterise their new products at the earliest stage in their
development to reduce the risk of late stage failure. High value solutions in
defence and clinical diagnostics are also being provided by these core
bio-analytical technologies. A successful and growing part of the Avacta
business model is its technical services arm, Avacta Analytical Ltd, which is
focused on providing leading edge contract research to the biopharmaceutical
and healthcare/personal-care materials sectors. Avacta listed on AIM in August
2006 through the reverse takeover of Readybuy plc which changed its name to
Avacta Group plc.