Diagnostics firm take rights to several Affimers

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."

ENDS

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 Geoff Nash / Giles Rolls - Nominated Adviser Tim Redfern / Alice Lane - Corporate Broking WG Partners Nigel Birks / Nigel Barnes David Wilson / Claes Spang	Tel:  [phone] www.finncap.com Tel:  [phone] Tel:  [phone] www.wgpartners.co.uk
Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Media) Katie Odgaard FTI Consulting (Financial Media and IR) Simon Conway / Natalie Garland-Collins	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]  Tel: [phone] [e-mail]

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.

 

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