Director Appointment

RNS Number : 2035O

Avacta Group PLC

28 January 2019

 

28 January 2019

Avacta Group plc

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

Director Appointment

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer^® biotherapeutics and reagents, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Sam Williams as Non-Executive Director to the Board with immediate effect.

Dr Williams is currently Managing Partner and Head of Life Sciences at IP Group plc, the FTSE 250 investor in Life Sciences and Technology. He has an outstanding track-record in the biotech sector, both as a top-ranked biotechnology analyst in the City whilst at Lehman Brothers and, subsequently, as a Director and CEO, in which capacity he has overseen the development of novel therapeutics through early-stage clinical testing and successfully negotiated global alliances with major pharmaceutical companies. Thus, he brings extensive financial, operational and investment expertise to the Avacta Board.

Dr Williams was awarded a PhD in Molecular Biology by Cambridge University, earned while working in the laboratory of Sir Greg Winter, Nobel Laureate, and has a degree in Biology from Oxford University.

Dr Eliot Forster, Chairman of Avacta Group, commented:

"I am delighted that Dr Williams is joining Avacta and very much look forward to working with him. Sam has extensive experience of the Biotech industry both as an investor and operator which he will bring to the Board."

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 - ECM WG Partners Nigel Birks / Nigel Barnes David Wilson / Claes Spang	Tel:  [phone] www.finncap.com Tel:  [phone] Tel:  [phone] www.wgpartners.co.uk
Turner Pope Investments James Pope Ben Turner Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Media) Katie Odgaard Yellow Jersey (Financial Media and IR) Sarah Hollins Harriet Jackson	Tel: [phone] www.turnerpope.com Tel: [phone] [e-mail]  Tel: [phone] 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 $100bn 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 as well as partnered development programmes. Avacta is commercialising non-therapeutic Affimer^® reagents through licensing to developers of life sciences research tools and diagnostics.

Regulatory disclosure - The following information is disclosed in accordance with Rule 17 and paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

Samuel Cameron Williams, 49, holds 19,537 ordinary shares in the Company. Dr. Williams' current and previous directorships are as follows:

Current Directorships/Partnerships:

18 Arundel Gardens Management Limited

Diurnal Group Plc

Genomics Plc

Iksuda Therapeutics Limited

Istesso Limited

Modern Biosciences Nominees Limited

MBS Director Limited

MBS Secretarial Limited

MBS4 Limited

MBS3 Limited

MBS5 Limited

Modern Biosciences Limited

PIMCO 2664 Limited

Directorships/Partnerships held in last 5 years:

Bioindustry Association

C4X Discovery Holdings plc

C4X Discovery Limited

C4X Drug Discovery Limited

Diurnal Limited

Karus Therapeutics Limited

Save for the disclosures above, there are no further disclosures to be made in accordance with Rule 17 and Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules.

 

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