Avacta acquires Coris Bioconcept

Avacta Group PLC

01 June 2023

 

01 June 2023

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Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Company" and, together with its subsidiary undertakings, the "Group")

Avacta acquires Coris Bioconcept, adding a broad range of marketed professional-use rapid tests to the Group

Acquisition consistent with Avacta Diagnostics M&A strategy and complements earlier acquisition of Launch Diagnostics

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a life sciences company developing innovative, targeted oncology drugs and powerful diagnostics, is pleased to announce that it has acquired Coris Bioconcept SRL ("Coris") for an upfront cash consideration of £7.4 million (on a debt-free/cash-free basis and subject to customary working capital adjustments), with an earnout based on future business performance, payable in cash, of up to £3.0 million (the "Acquisition").

Avacta's Diagnostics division is driving ambitious growth through an M&A-led strategy with the aim of supporting healthcare professionals and broadening access to high quality diagnostics. The strategy is focused on both acquiring routes into the diagnostics market and appropriate IP-rich product portfolios. The first acquisition, Launch Diagnostics, in October 2022 provides the group with a well-established route to market in the centralised professional healthcare market, primarily in the UK and France.

Coris, based in Gembloux, Belgium and established in 1996, develops, manufactures and markets rapid diagnostic test kits, mainly lateral flow tests, for use by healthcare professionals. Coris is ISO 13485 certified and markets its products through distributors in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and Oceania. Coris' revenue splits for the year ended 31 December 2021 were: 80% Europe; 12% America; and 8% from the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 December 2022 ("FY22") were £4.6 million, the majority of which were non-COVID-19 related. FY21-22 gross margin was approximately 50%, with EBITDA in FY22 of £0.35 million and a loss-after-tax of £0.02 million. Net assets as at 31 December 2022 were £6.0 million.

Operationally, Coris employs 35 members of staff split across Production, Sales, Marketing, Quality Control, Regulation and Administration. In March 2023, the business completed the construction of a new 10,700ft² production, offices and warehouse facility in Gembloux.

Coris' product portfolio comprises diagnostic tests for respiratory, gastro-enteric and blood-borne pathogens (bacteria, viruses and parasites) and for the detection of antibiotic resistance markers. As part of this portfolio, Coris markets a COVID-19 lateral flow test. Due to this, Avacta has taken the commercial decision to halt the redevelopment of its own AffiDX^® SARS-CoV-2 antigen lateral flow test.

The existing Coris management team will remain with the business and work closely with Avacta Diagnostics businesses to drive growth and margins through improved distribution channels and an expanded product range. Avacta will transfer its lateral flow product development activities to Coris and support that activity through ongoing development of Affimer^® reagents for new products or to enhance existing ones.

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

"The acquisition of Coris provides the Group with a broad, professional-use rapid test product portfolio. Complementing the acquisition of Launch Diagnostics last year, the Acquisition represents an important step in establishing a full-spectrum in-vitro diagnostics business covering centralised, pathology laboratory diagnostics, as well as decentralised, point-of-care testing solutions outside the hospital setting.

"Antibiotic resistance is a major global challenge and we strongly believe that the market for antimicrobial resistance ("AMR") testing is one with good future growth prospects. We are particularly pleased, therefore, to have added an AMR product portfolio to the Group with this acquisition.

"With this acquisition, our Diagnostics division has taken another important step towards realising its mission to support healthcare professionals and broaden access to high quality diagnostics."

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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 Michael Vinegrad, Group Communications Director	Tel: [phone] www.avacta.com
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Nomad and Broker) Nicholas Moore / Nick Adams / Samira Essebiyea / Nick Harland / Dhiren Suares / William Palmer-Brown	Tel: [phone] www.stifel.com
FTI Consulting (Financial Media and IR) Simon Conway / Alex Shaw	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 plc is a life sciences company working to improve people's health and well-being through innovative oncology drugs and powerful diagnostics. Operating through two divisions, Diagnostics and Therapeutics, the Group's mission is to provide professionals and consumers with solutions that improve healthcare, fitness and well-being.

Avacta's Therapeutics Division, a clinical stage oncology drug innovator, is building a wholly owned pipeline of novel Affimer^® immunotherapies and pre|CISION™ tumour targeted chemotherapies. This approach is designed to address the lack of a durable response to current cancer immunotherapies experienced by most patients and reduce the severe systemic toxicities caused by chemotherapies. There are five programmes in the pipeline as well as several global research collaborations and licensing partnerships. Avacta's lead programme, AVA6000, is a pre|CISION™ tumour-targeted form of the established chemotherapy doxorubicin. AVA6000 is in Phase I clinical trials in patients with locally advanced or metastatic selected solid tumours.

The Affimer^® platform is an alternative to antibodies that has been designed to address many of the drawbacks of antibodies which, despite their shortcomings, currently dominate the immuno-diagnostics and immuno-therapeutics markets.

The pre|CISION™ tumour targeting platform can be used to modify a chemotherapy in order to selectively release the active drug in tumour tissue thereby reducing the systemic exposure that causes damage to healthy tissues. pre|CISION™ modified chemotherapies are designed to reduce the side effects and improve the overall safety and therapeutic potential of these powerful anti-cancer treatments.

Avacta's Diagnostics Division develops and supplies a broad range of in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) solutions. The Division is growing rapidly through an M&A strategy to deliver a global scale IVD business providing market leading solutions for healthcare professionals and consumers to inform treatment and monitor health and well-being. In October 2022, Avacta acquired Launch Diagnostics which serves the hospital pathology laboratory market in the UK and Europe. In May 2023, Avacta acquired Coris Bioconcept a Belgium based lateral flow test developer and manufacturer adding a broad range of marketed professional-use rapid tests into the Diagnostics Division. Avacta Diagnostic's research and development centre in Wetherby, UK uses its proprietary Affimer^® platform to differentiate immunodiagnostic products to provide marketing leading performance.

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