REG - Avacta Group PLC - Dose escalation in the phase I trial of AVA6000

AvactaAnnouncement

03/02/2022 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220203:nRSC5357Aa&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 5357A  Avacta Group PLC  03 February 2022

 

3 February 2022

 

 

 

Avacta Group plc

 

("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")

 

Avacta Announces Dose Escalation in the Phase I Clinical Study of AVA6000
Pro-doxorubicin

 

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a clinical stage oncology drug company and
developer of powerful diagnostics based on its innovative Affimer(®) and
pre|CISION™ platforms, announces that the first-in-human Phase I trial
(ALS-6000-101) of AVA6000 Pro-doxorubicin will advance to the next dose cohort
following a positive review of the safety data from the dosing of the first
cohort.

 

Avacta's Safety Data Monitoring Committee (SDMC), comprised of clinicians
currently recruiting patients, has completed its review of the safety data
from the first cohort dosed with AVA6000 at 80mg/m(2) in the ongoing Phase I
trial. Following this review, the SDMC has recommended that the clinical trial
continues as planned and escalates to the next dose of AVA6000 at 120mg/m(2).

 

AVA6000 is a novel form of doxorubicin that has been modified with Avacta's
pre|CISION™ platform to improve its safety and therapeutic index.
Anthracyclines such as doxorubicin, a generic chemotherapy with a market size
that is expected to grow to $1.38bn by 2024(1), are widely used as part of
standard of care in several tumour types, but their use is limited by
cumulative toxicity. AVA6000 has been designed to limit cell penetration of
the drug, and therefore its cell killing effect, until it is specifically
activated by fibroblast activation protein α (FAP) which is in high
concentration in many solid tumours compared with healthy tissues. The
resulting reduced exposure of healthy tissues to active doxorubicin has the
potential to significantly increase its therapeutic index by reducing the
incidence of adverse effects, including cardiotoxicity and myelosuppression.

 

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

"We are delighted with the SDMC's recommendation to move on to the next dose
of AVA6000 in our dose escalation study following its positive review of the
safety data from patients in the first cohort.

 

"We are very excited by the potential of AVA6000, and the pre|CISION platform
more broadly, to deliver ground-breaking and affordable cancer treatments that
have the potential to significantly improve patients' lives."

 

ENDS

 

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations
(EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ('MAR'). Upon the publication of this
announcement via Regulatory Information Service ('RIS'), this inside
information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:

 

 Avacta Group plc                                              Tel: +44 (0) 844 414 0452

 Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer                       www.avacta.com (http://www.avacta.com)

 Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial Officer

 Michael Vinegrad, Group Communications Director

 Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Nomad and Broker)             Tel: +44 (0) 207 710 7600

 Nicholas Moore / Nick Adams / Fred Walsh / Nicholas Harland   www.stifel.com (http://www.stifel.com/)

 FTI Consulting (Financial Media and IR)                       Tel: +44(0) 203 727 1000

 Simon Conway / Alex Shaw                                      Avacta.LS@fticonsulting.com (mailto:Avacta.LS@fticonsulting.com)

 Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Media)                Tel: +44 (0)7891 477 378

 Lily Jeffery                                                  lily.jeffery@zymecommunications.com

                                                             (mailto:katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com)

 

About Avacta Group plc - https://www.avacta.com (https://www.avacta.com/)

 

Avacta Group is developing novel cancer immunotherapies and powerful
diagnostics based on its two proprietary platforms - Affimer(®) biologics and
pre|CISION™ tumour targeted chemotherapies.

 

The Affimer(®) platform is an alternative to antibodies derived from a small
human protein. Despite their shortcomings, antibodies currently dominate
markets, such as diagnostics and therapeutics, worth in excess of $100bn.
Affimer technology has been designed to address many of these negative
performance issues, principally: the time taken to generate new antibodies and
the reliance on an animal's immune response; poor specificity in many cases;
their large size, complexity and high cost of manufacture.

 

Avacta's pre|CISION™ targeted chemotherapy platform releases active
chemotherapy in the tumour, which limits the systemic exposure that causes
damage to healthy tissues, and thereby improves the overall safety and
therapeutic potential of these powerful anti-cancer treatments.

 

The Group comprises two divisions: The therapeutics development activities are
based in London and Cambridge, UK and the Group is generating near-term
revenues from Affimer reagents for diagnostics, bioprocessing and research,
through a separate diagnostics business unit based in Wetherby, UK.

 

Avacta's Diagnostics Division is developing an in-house pipeline of
Affimer-based diagnostic assays, including the AffiDX(®) SARS-CoV-2 Lateral
Flow Rapid Antigen Test, and works with partners world-wide to develop bespoke
Affimer(®) reagents for third party products.

 

Avacta's Therapeutics Division is working to deliver a more tolerable and
durable treatment response for oncology patients who do not respond to
existing immunotherapies. By combining its two proprietary platforms the Group
is building a wholly owned pipeline of clinically differentiated cancer
therapies, aiming to extend the therapeutic benefits to all cancer patients.
In 2021 Avacta transitioned to become a clinical stage biopharmaceutical
company, commencing a phase I first-in-human, open label, dose-escalation and
expansion study of AVA6000, a pro-doxorubicin, the Group's lead pre|CISION™
prodrug, in patients with locally advanced or metastatic selected solid
tumours.

 

Avacta has established drug development partnerships with pharma and biotech,
including a research collaboration with ModernaTX, Inc. (formerly Moderna
Therapeutics Inc.), a multi-target deal with LG Chem worth up to $400m, a
joint venture in South Korea with Daewoong Pharmaceutical focused on cell and
gene therapies incorporating Affimer immune-modulators and a collaboration
with Point Biopharma to develop radiopharmaceuticals based on the
pre|CISION™ platform. Avacta continues to actively seek to license its
proprietary platforms in a range of therapeutic areas.

 

To register for news alerts by email go
to www.avacta.com/investor-news-email-alerts
(http://www.avacta.com/investor-news-email-alerts)

 

(1) https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/doxorubicin-market-size-is-expected-to-reach-138-billion-by-2024-grand-view-research-inc-602613665.html
(https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/doxorubicin-market-size-is-expected-to-reach-138-billion-by-2024-grand-view-research-inc-602613665.html)

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  RESFFFIFFVIFIIF