Issue of Equity

RNS Number : 3116F

Avacta Group PLC

13 November 2020

 

13 November 2020

Avacta Group plc

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

Issue of Equity

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of innovative cancer therapies and diagnostics based on its proprietary Affimer® and pre|CISION™ platforms, today announces that following the exercise of share options by an employee it has issued and allotted in total 2,750 new ordinary shares of 10 pence each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares").

Application will be made for the Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and dealings are expected to commence on 19 November 2020 . The Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares of the Company.

Following Admission, the Company's enlarged issued share capital will be 252,652,554. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

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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 (Nomad and Joint Broker) Geoff Nash / Giles Rolls / Teddy Whiley - Corporate Finance Tim Redfern - ECM	Tel: [phone] www.finncap.com
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited  (Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Nicholas Moore / Nick Adams / Fred Walsh / Ben Maddison	www.stifel.com
Yellow Jersey  (Financial Media and IR) Sarah Hollins Henry Wilkinson Zyme Communications  (Trade and Regional Media) Katie Odgaard	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 $100 billion.  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 in 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 $400 million, 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.

To register for news alerts by email go to www.avacta.com/investor-news-email-alerts

 

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