LG Chem renews license triggers payment to Avacta

RNS Number : 7236Q

Avacta Group PLC

30 June 2022

 

30 June 2022

Avacta Group plc

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

LG Chem renews license triggering payment to Avacta

LG Chem will now proceed with Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling studies for Affimer PD-L1 antagonist programme

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative cancer therapies and powerful diagnostics based on its proprietary Affimer^® and pre|CISION™ platforms, is pleased to announce that LG Chem Life Sciences (LG Chem), the life sciences division of the South Korean LG Group, has exercised its renewal option as part of the ongoing collaboration with Avacta, triggering a license renewal fee payment to Avacta of $2 million.

Under the terms of the agreement, LG Chem has the exclusive rights to develop and commercialise, on a global basis, Avacta's Affimer^® PD-L1 inhibitor with Affimer XT^™ serum half-life extension for a range of indications. LG Chem has exercised its license renewal option and will progress the PD-L1/XT candidate by commencing pre-clinical studies which are intended to form the basis of an Investigational New Drug (IND) submission.

In December 2018, Avacta and LG Chem entered into a multi-target development agreement to develop Affimer^® therapeutics in several disease areas. In 2020 the companies agreed to expand this drug development partnership to include Avacta's Affimer XT^® technology, which can be used to control the time a drug spends in the blood.

Dr Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Avacta Group, commented:

"I am very pleased with the progress being made by our partners LG Chem with the Affimer PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor programme, which includes the Affimer XT serum half-life extension technology. The initiation of IND enabling studies represents a significant step towards first-in-human clinical trials of the Affimer platform, which is a key value driver for the technology and for Avacta."

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This announcement contains information which, prior to its disclosure, was considered inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR).

For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:

Avacta Group plc Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial Officer Michael Vinegrad, Group Communications Director	Tel: [phone] www.avacta.com
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Nomad and Broker) Nicholas Moore / Nick Adams / Fred Walsh / Nicholas Harland	Tel: [phone] www.stifel.com
FTI Consulting (Financial Media and IR) Simon Conway / Alex Shaw / George Kendrick	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]
Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Media) Lily Jeffery	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]

About Avacta Group plc - www.avacta.com

Avacta Group is developing novel cancer immunotherapies and powerful diagnostics based on its two proprietary platforms - Affimer^® biologics and pre|CISION™ tumour targeted chemotherapies.

The Affimer^® platform is an alternative to antibodies and is derived from a small human protein. Affimer technology has been designed to address many of the negative issues of antibodies, principally: the time taken to generate new antibodies, the reliance on an animal's immune response; poor specificity in many cases; in addition to, the complexity and high cost of manufacture. Despite these shortcomings, antibodies currently dominate markets, such as diagnostics and therapeutics, which are worth in excess of $100bn.

Avacta's pre|CISION™ targeted chemotherapy platform is designed to selectively release active chemotherapy in FAP rich tumour tissue to limit the systemic exposure that causes damage to healthy tissues, and thereby aims to improve the overall safety and therapeutic potential of these powerful anti-cancer treatments.

The Avacta Group comprises two divisions: The therapeutics development activities are based in London, UK and a separate diagnostics business unit is based in Wetherby, UK. The Group is generating near-term revenues from Affimer^® reagents for diagnostics, bioprocessing and research.

Avacta's Diagnostics Division is developing an in-house pipeline of Affimer-based diagnostic assays, including the AffiDX^® SARS-CoV-2 Lateral Flow Rapid Antigen Test, and works with partners world-wide to develop bespoke Affimer^® reagents for third party products.

Avacta's Therapeutics Division is working to generate more tolerable and durable treatments for oncology patients who do not respond to existing therapies. By combining its two proprietary platforms the Group is building a wholly owned pipeline of clinically differentiated cancer therapies. In 2021 Avacta transitioned to become a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, when it commenced a phase I trial in patients with locally advanced or metastatic selected solid tumours. The study was a first-in-human, open label, dose-escalation and expansion study of the Group's lead pre|CISION™ prodrug, AVA6000 (a pro-doxorubicin).

Avacta has established drug development partnerships with pharma and biotech, including a multi-target deal with LG Chem, a joint venture in South Korea with Daewoong Pharmaceutical focused on cell and gene therapies incorporating Affimer immune-modulators and a recent license agreement with Point Biopharma for them to develop radiopharmaceuticals based on the pre|CISION™ platform.

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