Clarification Regarding Medusa 19 Antibody Test

RNS Number : 2554W

Avacta Group PLC

17 August 2020

 

17 August 2020

Avacta Group plc

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

Clarification Regarding Medusa 19 Antibody Test

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer^® biotherapeutics and reagents, issues clarification following information appearing on the Medusa 19 web site regarding a SARS-CoV-2 antibody test on Friday, 14 August 2020.

Avacta is not involved with Medusa 19's development of the antibody test.  Performance figures appearing on Medusa 19's web site on Friday, 14 August 2020 relate to this antibody test and do not relate to Avacta's rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen test.

Avacta will update the market on continued progress and on the performance of its antigen test when appropriate.

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For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:

Avacta Group plc Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial Officer	Tel:  [phone] www.avacta.com
finnCap Ltd (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) Geoff Nash / Giles Rolls - Corporate Finance Tim Redfern - E CM	Tel:  [phone] www.finncap.com
Zeus Capital Limited (Joint Broker) John Goold / Rupert Woolfenden - Corporate Broking Yellow Jersey PR (Financial Media and IR) Sarah Hollins Henry Wilkinson Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Media) Katie Odgaard	Tel: [phone] www.zeuscapital.co.uk Tel: [phone] [e-mail] Tel: [phone] [e-mail]

About Avacta Group plc - https://www.avacta.com

Avacta is developing novel cancer immunotherapies combining its two proprietary platforms - Affimer^® biotherapeutics and pre|CISION™ tumour targeted chemotherapy. With this approach, the Company aims to address the lack of a durable response to current immunotherapies experienced by most patients. The Company's therapeutics development activities are based in Cambridge, UK.

The Company benefits from near-term revenues generated from Affimer reagents for diagnostics, bioprocessing and research, through a separate business unit based in Wetherby, UK.

The Affimer platform is an alternative to antibodies derived from a small human protein. Despite their shortcomings, antibodies currently dominate markets worth in excess of $100bn.  Affimer technology has been designed to address many of these negative performance issues, principally: the time taken, and the reliance on an animal's immune response, to generate new antibodies; poor specificity in many cases; large size and cost. 

Avacta's pre|CISION targeted chemotherapy platform, releases active chemotherapy only in the tumour, thereby limiting systemic exposure and damage to healthy tissues, and thereby improving the overall safety and therapeutic potential of these powerful anti-cancer treatments. 

By combining these two platforms the Company is building a wholly owned pipeline of novel cancer therapies with the aim of creating effective treatments for all cancer patients including those who do not respond to existing immunotherapies. Avacta expects to take its first drug, a pre|CISION targeted form of the standard-of-care Doxorubicin, into the clinic later in 2020 or early 2021.

Avacta has established drug development partnerships with pharma and biotech, including with Moderna Therapeutics Inc., a deal with LG Chem worth up to $310m, a partnership with ADC Therapeutics to develop Affimer drug conjugates and has established a joint venture in South Korea with Daewoong Pharmaceutical focused on cell and gene therapies incorporating Affimer immune-modulators. Avacta actively seeks to license its proprietary platforms in a range of therapeutic areas.

Avacta diagnostics business unit works with partners world-wide to develop Affimers for evaluation by those third parties with the objective of establishing royalty bearing license deals. The Company is also developing a small in-house pipeline of Affimer-based diagnostic assays for licensing.

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