Avacta Group PLC Avacta agrees Affimer reagent licensing deal (4875D)
October 10 2018 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMAVCT
RNS Number : 4875D
Avacta Group PLC
10 October 2018
10 October 2018
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
Avacta agrees Affimer reagent licensing deal with New England
Biolabs (NEB)
Royalty bearing license agreement to commercialise a product
incorporating the Affimer technology
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer(R)
biotherapeutics and reagents, is pleased to announce that it has
agreed a commercial license with New England Biolabs(R) (NEB(R) )
(Ipswich MA, USA), a global leader in the discovery and production
of enzymes for molecular biology applications, to commercialise a
product using the Affimer technology for use in both life science
research and diagnostics assays.
Avacta and NEB have been collaborating to develop Affimers to
combine with NEB's reagents. Avacta has identified Affimers that
specifically inhibit certain NEB proprietary enzymes to provide
modulation of their activity in response to temperature. Unlike
alternative enzyme inhibitors, Affimers can be fine-tuned to switch
at the right temperature without having a negative effect on the
overall assay performance. NEB is in the final stages of product
testing and the two companies have agreed terms under which NEB
will commercialise the combined product.
Financial details of the agreement are not being disclosed, but
Avacta will receive a royalty on product sales, which may occur as
soon as 2019.
NEB and Avacta expect to continue the collaboration to generate
Affimer tools and inhibitors to other enzymes, enabling further
product developments.
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta Group commented:
"We are delighted that the collaboration with New England
Biolabs, a highly respected, globally recognized leader in the life
sciences reagents market, has resulted in this commercial agreement
to incorporate the Affimer technology into one of their
products.
This is another important milestone for Avacta, because it
further validates the Affimer technology and our licensing business
model. We have built a pipeline of evaluations and collaborations,
such as this one with New England Biolabs, to deliver numerous
license agreements to commercialise Affimer-based products.
Collectively, these royalty bearing licenses will underpin the
future high margin revenue from Affimer reagents.
We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration to
generate more combined products for the research and molecular
diagnostic markets.
This is a very exciting time for the Group and we look forward
to updating the market on continuing commercial progress for
Affimer reagents and, importantly, on therapeutic licensing
deals."
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
Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial Officer
finnCap Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 0500
Geoff Nash / Giles Rolls - Nominated www.finncap.com
Adviser
Tim Redfern - Corporate Broking
Tel: +44 (0) 203 705 9318
WG Partners Tel: +44 (0) 203 705 9217
Nigel Birks / Nigel Barnes www.wgpartners.co.uk
David Wilson / Claes Spang
Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Tel: +44 (0)7787 502 947
Media) katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com
Katie Odgaard
Yellow Jersey (Financial Media and Tel: +44 (0)7764 947137
IR) Tel: +44 (0)7946 424 651
Sarah Hollins avacta@yellowjerseypr.com
Katie Bairsto
About Avacta Group plc (www.avacta.com)
Avacta's principal focus is on its proprietary Affimer(R)
technology which is a novel engineered alternative to antibodies
that has wide application in Life Sciences for diagnostics,
therapeutics and general research and development.
Antibodies dominate markets worth in excess of $100bn despite
their shortcomings. Affimer technology has been designed to address
many of these negative performance issues, principally; the time
taken to generate new antibodies, the reliance on an animal's
immune response, poor specificity in many cases, and batch to batch
variability. Affimer technology is based on a small protein that
can be quickly generated to bind with high specificity and affinity
to a wide range of protein targets.
Avacta has a pre-clinical biotech development programme with an
in-house focus on immuno-oncology and bleeding disorders as well as
partnered development programmes. Avacta is commercialising
non-therapeutic Affimer reagents through licensing to developers of
life sciences research tools and diagnostics.
About New England Biolabs
Established in the mid 1970's, New England Biolabs, Inc. (NEB)
is the industry leader in the discovery and production of enzymes
for molecular biology applications and now offers the largest
selection of recombinant and native enzymes for genomic research.
NEB continues to expand its product offerings into areas related to
PCR, gene expression, sample preparation for next generation
sequencing, synthetic biology, glycobiology, epigenetics and RNA
analysis. Additionally, NEB is focused on strengthening alliances
that enable new technologies to reach key market sectors, including
molecular diagnostics development. New England Biolabs is a
privately held company, headquartered in Ipswich, MA, and has
extensive worldwide distribution through a network of exclusive
distributors, agents and seven subsidiaries located in Canada,
China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the UK. For more
information about New England Biolabs visit www.neb.com.
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END
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