Advanced Oncotherapy - Technical update on delivery of first LIGHT system

Advanced Oncotherapy

13/12/2021 06:59

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RNS Number : 3596V  Advanced Oncotherapy PLC  13 December 2021

Prior to publication, the information contained within this announcement was
deemed by the Company to constitute inside information for the purposes of
Regulation 11 of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310.
With the publication of this announcement, this information is now considered
to be in the public domain.

 

ADVANCED ONCOTHERAPY PLC

("Advanced Oncotherapy" or the "Company")

 

Technical update on delivery of first LIGHT system

 

Good progress, despite continuing global supply chain challenges; Medical
treatment room construction complete; LIGHT Patient Positioning System
installed

 

First fully operational LIGHT system, capable of accelerating protons at 230
MeV, now expected to occur around the end of Q1 2022

 

Advanced Oncotherapy (AIM:AVO), the developer of LIGHT, the next-generation
proton therapy system for cancer treatment, today provides a technical update
on the delivery of its first operational LIGHT system capable of accelerating
protons at 230 MeV.

 

Good progress despite continuing global supply chain challenges

 

As outlined at the time of the Company's interim results in September 2021,
external factors continue to impact the completion of the Company's first
LIGHT system, including the global supply chain shortage of technical and
electronic components such as semi-conductors. To mitigate potential delays
that have resulted from the protracted Covid-19 pandemic overhang, the Company
has taken several key actions including:

 

1.   Instigating supply chain initiatives to identify and use alternative
components and suppliers whilst complying to ISO standards and medical device
requirements; and

 

2.   Contracting with key suppliers to recruit additional installation and
testing expertise and capacity.

 

As a result of these successful endeavours, the Company has been able to make
good progress with the assembly, verification and validation activities of the
LIGHT system. Key ongoing activities at the Company's assembly site in
Daresbury, Cheshire, UK, include ultra-high vacuum testing of accelerating
units, the conditioning of the Modulator-Klystron Subsystems (which provide
high radio-frequency power to the machine to accelerate the proton beam),
alignment of additional subsystems in the accelerator line and beam
diagnostics, and verification.

 

Medical treatment room construction complete and LIGHT Patient Positioning
System installed

 

Since the release of the Company's interim results, the Medical Treatment Room
("MTR") required for the clinical treatment of patients with the LIGHT system
has been completed at the Company's Daresbury integration site. Subsequently,
the necessary permissions have been received to use the MTR with ionising
radiation.

 

Proton therapy requires high accuracy placement (positioning) of the patient,
typically with 1 mm tolerance or less. As such, the Company has developed and
installed in the MTR a bespoke LIGHT Patient Positioning System (L-PPS) to
provide the required accuracy in a compact and efficient system. The L-PPS
comprises of a robotic patient positioner for aligning patients in the upright
position in a treatment chair, a CT imaging subsystem, an X-Ray imaging
subsystem, and computing software and hardware which are important components
as proton therapy requires highly accurate placement, imaging, and image
processing of patients. The Company is currently testing the L-PPS subsystem
and the data collected will be used for clinical commissioning prior to human
use.

 

Pictures of the Medical Treatment Room can be found here
(https://www.avoplc.com/Portals/0/adam/Newsroom/KVDpn35GOk6cEcBsAlgb2Q/Link/PPSInstallandmodelling.pdf)
.

 

Update on timing of delivery of LIGHT system

 

The Company stated in its interim results statement that it was targeting
delivery of the first LIGHT system by the end of 2021, but due to external
factors impacting the supply chain, this could slip into Q1 2022. The Company
today confirms that it now anticipates delivering its first operational LIGHT
system around the end of Q1 2022.

 

 Advanced Oncotherapy plc                                  www.avoplc.com (http://www.avoplc.com)
 Dr Michael Sinclair, Executive Chairman                   Tel: +44 (0) 20 3617 8728
 Nicolas Serandour, CEO

 Allenby Capital Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker)          Tel: +44 (0) 20 3328 5656
 Nick Athanas / Liz Kirchner (Corporate Finance)

 Amrit Nahal / Matt Butlin (Sales and Corporate Broking)

 SI Capital Ltd (Joint Broker)
 Nick Emerson                                              Tel: +44 (0) 1483 413 500
 Jon Levinson                                              Tel: +44 (0) 20 3871 4066

 FTI Consulting (Financial PR & IR)                        advancedoncotherapy@fticonsulting.com
                                                           (mailto:advancedoncotherapy@fticonsulting.com)
 Simon Conway / Rob Winder                                 Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1000

 

 

About Advanced Oncotherapy

 

Advanced Oncotherapy, a UK headquartered company with offices in London,
Geneva, The Netherlands and in the USA, is a provider of particle therapy with
protons that harnesses the best in modern technology. Advanced Oncotherapy's
team "ADAM," based in Geneva, focuses on the development of a proprietary
proton accelerator called, Linac Image Guided Hadron Technology (LIGHT).
LIGHT's compact configuration delivers proton beams in a way that facilitates
greater precision and electronic control.

 

Advanced Oncotherapy will offer healthcare providers affordable systems that
will enable them to treat cancer with innovative technology as well as
expected lower treatment-related side effects.

 

Advanced Oncotherapy continually monitors the market for any emerging
improvements in delivering proton therapy and actively seeks working
relationships with providers of these innovative technologies. Through these
relationships, the Company will remain the prime provider of an innovative and
cost-effective system for particle therapy with protons.

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