Avacta Group PLC (LON:AVCT) has established proof-of-concept for a potential new cancer therapy that combines two established treatments and which outperformed the best-in-class medication in the lab.
The group's TMAC drug conjugate has brought together a PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor with an I-DASH drug warhead using the company’s two technology platforms – its Affimer immunotherapies and pre|CISION chemotherapies.
Avacta’s molecule, called AVA04-VbP, was designed to deliver the warhead to the tumour microenvironment in a way that prompts the immune system to attack cancer.
Additionally, the company’s Affimer immunotherapy part of the TMAC molecule supported a secondary immune attack.
In a mouse tumour model, the new technology outperformed Bavencio, a PD-L1 antibody inhibitor for lung cancer sold by Merck and Pfizer.
The rodents treated with AVA04-VbP showed a significant reduction in the rate of tumour growth compared with those receiving the standard treatment.
The results of this pre-clinical analysis also revealed that higher levels of the I-DASH warhead were measured in the tumours compared with very low levels in the blood.
This suggested healthy tissue was being spared the ravages of the treatment, the company concluded.
Avacta chief executive, Dr Alastair Smith, called the results from the TMAC programme “highly encouraging”.
"These in vivo efficacy and distribution data demonstrate initial proof-of-concept for TMAC drug conjugates and represent an important milestone for the company,” he added.
“We continue to receive significant commercial interest in the TMAC concept, so I am delighted that we have been able to demonstrate superior efficacy and targeting of the warhead to the tumour with the first TMAC that we have tested in animals.”