REG - Avacta Group PLC - Vimian acquires Avacta’s Animal Health Division

AvactaAnnouncement

16/03/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 8987E  Avacta Group PLC  16 March 2022

 

16 March 2022

 

 

Avacta Group plc

 

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

 

Vimian Group acquires Avacta's Animal Health Division

 

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 Vimian Group AB (Vimian.ST) has
acquired the veterinary division of Avacta Group, Avacta Animal Health.

 

Avacta Animal Health provides veterinary allergy diagnostic solutions through
its laboratory in Wetherby, UK and re-sells immunotherapy products from
Nextmune, a Vimian Group company, to veterinary clinics across the UK. The
business also provides testing kits to veterinary laboratories across Europe.

 

Avacta Animal Health Limited will be acquired by Nextmune Holdings BV and will
be consolidated into Vimian's Specialty Pharma segment on 15 March, 2022.

 

Avacta has received an upfront payment of £0.9 million and will receive
additional deferred consideration of up to £1.4 million dependent on the
combined performance of the consolidated business. The Animal Health Division
had made an operating loss (prior to an impairment of historic goodwill) of
£0.3 million during the year ended 31 December 2020. The carrying value of
the Division as at 31 December 2020 was £1.0 million. The sale proceeds will
provide further funds for the development of the Group's Diagnostics and
Therapeutics Divisions.

 

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

"The sale of the Avacta Animal Health business allows the Group to focus
entirely on growing its core businesses; diagnostics and therapeutics. Having
had our Animal Health division since 2009, we are delighted that Vimian will
be retaining the entire Avacta Animal Health team and are well placed to grow
the business."

 

Magnus Kjellberg, CEO of Vimian's Specialty Pharma segment Nextmune,
commented:

"This acquisition significantly strengthens Nextmune's competitive position in
the UK. With our own laboratory for veterinary allergy diagnostics in the
country and a full-service offering covering all veterinary dermatology needs,
we see significant opportunities to accelerate sales and improve customer
experience in the UK. The cross-selling opportunities via this business
existing customer base as well as the increased laboratory capacity for
Nextmune are also key components in driving incremental growth."

 

ENDS

 

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.

 

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(http://www.avacta.com/investor-news-email-alerts)

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