Avalon GloboCare Corp (NASDAQ:AVCO) has told investors it is 'well positioned' to execute on its growth strategy this year as the company highlighted it had partnered with world-renowned research centers and universities.
In a year-end update, the clinical stage, cell therapy company noted its new collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) to develop new cancer immunotherapy approaches and streamline manufacturing processes.
Avalon’s lead candidate AVA-011, combines the firm's FLASH-CAR technology with an innovative messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) based technology platform, and is currently at an investigational new drug (IND)-enabling stage. Avalon is on track to initiate AVA-011 first-in-human clinical trial by mid-2022, it added.
Avalon has also co-developed and jointly filed a patent with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) on a novel platform of S-layer coated emulsome technology (SLET) for next-generation, targeted drug delivery and cellular immunotherapy applications, the firm said.
It believes this platform will help accelerate the development of Avalon’s mRNA-based Flash-CAR and other cellular therapy programs.
"Targeted delivery of mRNA into immune effector cells using SLET can potentially open the door to new generation of cancer immunotherapy and other applications including targeted drug delivery and therapeutics, vaccine development, in vitro diagnostics, and cellular medicines," the company said.
"Given our rapid progress this past year, our goal for 2022 is to focus on our core programs to drive innovation and bring about advanced technologies and new medicines to patients," said David Jin, the CEO of Avalon in a statement.
"Towards this end, we have decided not to move ahead with the SenlangBio acquisition," the company boss added.
"Instead, we plan to focus our resources on organic growth and strategic partnership opportunities that we believe will hold the potential to drive much greater value for our shareholders, while avoiding potentially significant dilution that would have occurred with the proposed acquisition.
"Through strategic investments, we intend to continue to bring high-quality, high-impact programs to enrich Avalon’s assets in intellectual properties, R&D and commercialization."
Jin went on: "Overall, we believe we are extremely well positioned to execute on our growth strategy, and I am highly encouraged by the operational and financial outlook for our business.
"Last week, we announced that our chairman converted his loan to common stock at a significant premium to market, showing his further support and confidence in the business. As we head into 2022, we believe we have a number of important upcoming milestones that have the potential to continue to drive significant value for our shareholders."
Avalon GloboCare is a clinical-stage, vertically integrated, leading CellTech bio-developer dedicated to advancing and empowering innovative, transformative immune effector cell therapy, exosome technology, as well as coronavirus (COVID-19) related diagnostics and therapeutics.
The company also provides strategic advisory and outsourcing services to facilitate and enhance its clients' growth and development, as well as competitiveness in healthcare and CellTech industry markets.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com