Avacta Group Plc (LON:AVCT) says it has made “significant progress” in its partnering discussions and expects to deliver at least one “substantial” licensing deal before its Affimer technology reaches the clinic.
“Multiple” potential pharma and biotech partners are said to be interested in Avacta’s technology.
Affimers are small, engineered proteins, some of which are of human origin and some of them plant-derived. They are capable of binding specific molecular targets, in a similar way to antibodies.
READ: Avacta shares jump as it inks co-development deal with Tufts
They are smaller, quicker to manufacture and easier to format, but they maintain antibody-like biologic activity when binding a target.
“We are very pleased with the significant operational progress made over the past year which firmly underpins our progress towards key near-term commercial and clinical milestones which represent major value inflection points for the Affimer platform and the group,” said chief executive Alastair Smith.
“Based on the growing body of pre-clinical data generated by the in-house therapeutic programmes, and by the partnered programmes, the group has made significant progress in our partnering discussions.”
He added: “We are very confident that the group will deliver at least one substantial pharmaceutical licensing deal whilst the technology is still at a pre-clinical stage, during which, we remain focused on getting first-in-man clinical data in 2020.”
Two lead programmes merged into one
Avacta had initially planned to take its two lead programmes, PD-L1 and LAG-3, through the clinic on their own.
But it has made “significant progress” with the latter over the past year and now intends to develop them together as a bispecific therapy, which it reckons is “a potentially much more valuable asset”.
The company said it also made “solid progress” with its partners over the year. Perhaps the standout tie-up was with Tufts University School of Medicine, which it will work with to develop a new class of Affimer drug conjugate therapies.
Thanks to an £11.6mln fundraise at the end of July, Avacta has enough cash to fund the pre-clinical work for the lead PD-L1/LAG-3 programme, advance the programme with Tufts and continue to build it a pipeline of Affimer therapeutics.
R&D ramps up
Avacta posted a modest rise in revenue to £2.76mln (2017: £2.74mln) in the 12 months ended July 31, while losses widened to £10.39mln (2017: loss of £7.18mln) reflecting higher R&D and administrative costs.
At the end of the period, the company had cash and cash equivalents of £5.2mln (2017: £13.2mln), although the proceeds of the recent fundraising were received in August, meaning current cash on hand is substantially higher.