Avacta Group PLC Appoints Dr Mike Owen as Non-executive Director (3081Z)
17 September 2015 - 4:01PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMAVCT
RNS Number : 3081Z
Avacta Group PLC
17 September 2015
17 September 2015
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group")
Avacta Appoints Dr Mike Owen as Non-executive Director
Adds extensive biopharmaceutical development and
commercialisation expertise to Board
and will establish and chair the Company's clinical advisory
board
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary
diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for life sciences, is
pleased to announce that it has appointed Dr Mike Owen to the Board
as a non-executive director with immediate effect.
Dr Owen was Senior Vice President and global Head of Research of
the Biopharmaceuticals R&D Unit at GlaxoSmithKline and was
responsible for initiating and rapidly growing GSK's robust
pre-clinical and clinical therapeutic antibody pipeline during the
last decade through in-house development as well as through
acquisitions such as Domantis. He left GSK in 2010 to establish
Kymab which is developing biotherapeutics using its novel
transgenic mouse platform. Dr Owen is an immunologist by training
who had a highly successful scientific career at Imperial Cancer
Research during which he was elected a member of the European
Molecular Biology Organisation and a fellow of the Academy of
Medical Sciences.
The appointment of Dr Owen to Avacta's Board follows the recent
successful raising of GBP22m by the Company to support the
development of Affimers as biotherapeutics. Affimers are Avacta's
engineered alternative to antibodies that have been developed to
address many of the limitations of antibodies. Avacta is
commercialising Affimers as research tools and is now investing
additionally in their development as the next generation of
biotherapeutic. Dr Owen brings extensive clinical trial, scientific
and commercial experience to the Company in support of this
strategy. He will establish and chair a Clinical Advisory Board
which will provide guidance to the Affimer therapeutic development
programmes.
Dr Owen is also an independent board member at Zealand Pharma
and non-executive director of Ossianix Inc. and Blink Therapeutics.
He sits on the scientific advisory board of Kymab and also advises
the private equity CRT Pioneer Fund and HS Life Sciences.
Dr Trevor Nicholls, Chairman, commented:
"I am absolutely delighted that we have been able to attract
someone with Mike's credentials to our Board. His extensive
experience in the field of novel biotherapeutic platforms will be
invaluable as we progress development and commercialisation of
Affimers as therapeutics. Additionally he brings with him
considerable clinical and market knowledge as well as a broad
network throughout the biopharmaceutical sector.
"We have shown that Affimers have very promising attributes as a
therapeutic platform and recently signed our first significant
licensing partnership with Moderna Therapeutics. It is a
tremendously exciting point in the company's development of
Affimers and we look forward to updating the market on the rapid
progress that is being made."
Dr Mike Owen commented:
"I am delighted to be joining the Board of Avacta. Affimers are
a tremendously exciting prospect and I look forward to providing
strategic input towards the Company's goal of generating a strong
proprietary therapeutic Affimer pipeline and establishing value
creating external alliances with biotech and pharma."
The following information is disclosed pursuant to Schedule Two
paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies. Michael John Owen,
aged 64 years, has been a director of the following companies
during the five years preceding the date of this announcement:
Current directorships Past directorships
Blink Therapeutics SAS Blink Therapeutics Limited
---------------------------
Zealand Pharma
---------------------------
Ossianix, Inc
---------------------------
The Club Cricket Organisation
Limited
---------------------------
There is no further information to be disclosed pursuant to Rule
17 or Schedule Two paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for
Companies.
Enquiries:
Avacta Group plc Tel: +44 (0) 844 414
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer 0452
Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer www.avacta.com
Numis Securities Limited Tel: +44 (0) 207 260
Michael Meade / Freddie Barnfield - Nominated 1000
Adviser www.numiscorp.com
James Black - Corporate Broking
WG Partners Tel: +44 (0) 203 705
David Wilson 9318
Nigel Barnes Tel: +44 (0) 203 705
Claes Spang 9217
www.wgpartners.co.uk
Media Enquiries Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727
FTI Consulting 1000
Simon Conway/Natalie Garland-Collins avacta@fticonsulting.com
Notes to Editors
Avacta Group plc (www.avacta.com)
Avacta Group plc is a global provider of innovative
technologies, consumables and reagents for the life science
markets, from drug discovery to diagnostics. 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 $50bn despite
their shortcomings. Affimers have 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. Affimers are 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 is commercialising Affimer reagents through custom
Affimer services to provide bespoke solutions to customers, via a
growing on-line catalogue of Affimer reagents and, in the longer
term, by developing Affimers with therapeutic properties for
out-licensing.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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