Interest in Affimer Technology

RNS Number : 7404Y

Avacta Group PLC

27 February 2013

 



Press release

27 February 2013

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or "the Company")

Avacta Attracts Interest for its Affimer Technology at the 8th Annual Biomarkers Congress in Manchester

Avacta Group plc (AIM:AVCT), a global provider of innovative diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents aimed at reducing the cost of human and animal healthcare, presented its novel antibody replacement technology at the 8th Annual Biomarkers Congress in Manchester on 19 and 20 February 2013.  

Affimers, as Avacta has named its proprietary reagents, are a new class of affinity reagent that are alternatives to antibodies. However, Affimers, based on a small human protein called Stefin A, have many advantages over antibodies, these include: reduced manufacturing costs, shorter development times, and avoidance of cross reactivity. Additionally, Affimers can be engineered to bind with high specificity and affinity to a wide range of targets, and beyond that of naturally occurring antibodies. Antibodies are by far the largest class of affinity reagents use in the Life Sciences with markets in diagnostics, R&D and therapeutics exceeding $50bn.

Dr. Paul Ko Ferrigno, Head of Discovery Technology at Avacta, presented data in the Biomarker Discovery and Development session of the Congress. The data showed how Affimer reagents and microarrays, made from thousands of Affimers, could be applied across a wide range of life science research and drug or biomarker  discovery.

Dr. Ferrigno presented data from prototype Affimer microarrays that were used to generate a list of proteins that are cleaved in apoptosis (cell death), a mechanism central to the growth of tumours. Other microarrays were able to identify a series of candidate biomarkers of inflammatory and cardiovascular disease in human serum.  Dr. Ferrigno also presented on how Affimers were used to develop sensitive ELISA-style assays that were able to validate two of the candidate biomarkers against a larger patient population.

Dr Ferrigno's demonstration of the Affimer reagents and arrays created significant interest from attendees at the Congress, who requested further information on: direct replacement of antibodies in their assays and products; finding Affimers that bind targets for which custom antibodies could not be found; and screening healthy and diseased patient samples for biomarker discovery. 

"This latest presentation from Dr. Ferrigno is very encouraging for the Affimer platform," said Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive Officer. "It reaffirms the key areas of focus that we have identified as future applications of Affimers.  While revenues from the Affimer platform will not come until 2014, we can be confident that the investment we are currently making into Affimers will develop high value products with substantial market interest."

Avacta will continue to develop the microarray technology with the aim of providing the Life Sciences market with the world's largest affinity protein microarray for biomarker and drug discovery, and with custom Affimer reagents to replace antibodies. The Company has previously announced that it anticipates revenue generation from these products in 2014.

Avacta will be presenting the Affimer technology several more times in the coming months: 10 March at the 6th ESF/Affinomics Workshop on Affinity Proteomics in Alpbach, Austria; 19 March at ELRIG (the European Laboratory Robotics Interest Group) in Telford, UK; and 30 April in the Biologics Partnering Forum at PEGS, the Protein Engineering Summit in Boston (USA).  Additionally, Paul will be chairing the Biotherapeutics stream at the 6th Annual Proteins Congress in London on 24 and 25 March.

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For further information please contact:

Avacta Group plc
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer	Tel: [phone]
Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer	www.avacta.com
Broker and Nominated Adviser Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited	Tel: [phone]
Fred Walsh /  Grishma Patel Charles Leigh-Pemberton (Corporate broking)

Media Enquiries - Abchurch Communications
Sarah Hollins / Adam Michael / Harriet Rae	Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]	www.abchurch-group.com

Notes to Editors:

About Avacta

Avacta Group plc is a global provider of innovative technologies, consumables and reagents for the life science markets, from drug discovery to diagnostics.

Avacta's products address one of the most significant global challenges facing mankind today - the rapidly rising cost of healthcare for a growing and ageing population.

The cost of healthcare is driven by many factors. New drugs are expensive to develop, most don't reach the patient and those that do are often very costly to prescribe. Inadequate, incorrect or slow diagnosis causes delays that lead to longer or less effective courses of treatment resulting in lengthy or repeated hospitalisation.

Avacta is dedicated to developing and providing innovative and practical tools to help drug developers get their products to market quicker and more reliably, and to providing clinicians with rapid and powerful diagnostics to improve patient treatment, helping to reduce the cost of healthcare worldwide.

Avacta joined AIM in August 2006 and is based in Wetherby, England.

For further information visit www.avacta.com 

 

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