Avacta Group PLC Avacta and Selexis Partner to Develop Cell Line (8077C)
20 June 2019 - 4:00PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMAVCT
RNS Number : 8077C
Avacta Group PLC
20 June 2019
20 June 2019
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta", the "Company" or the "Group")
Avacta and Selexis Partner to Develop Cell Line for Clinical
Manufacturing
Avacta's first Affimer clinical candidate is a potent PD-L1
antagonist under development for solid tumour indications as the
basis of bispecific and combination therapies
Cambridge, UK, and Geneva, Switzerland, 20 June 2019 - Avacta
Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer(R) biotherapeutics
and research reagents, and Selexis, a pioneering life sciences
company and global leader in mammalian cell line generation
technology, have partnered to develop the Chinese hamster ovary
(CHO) cell line that will be used to manufacture Avacta's first
Affimer clinical candidate for first-time-in-human clinical trials.
This major milestone means that Avacta remains on track to submit
an IND/CTA application for an Affimer PD-L1 inhibitor by the end of
2020.
Avacta's first clinical candidate will be against PD-L1, a
clinically validated immune checkpoint that plays an important role
in the tumour escape mechanism in cancer. The lead molecule
(AVA004) is a potent PD-L1 antagonist that has been engineered with
an Fc domain for half-life extension. Avacta has demonstrated the
preclinical efficacy of AVA004 in syngeneic and xenograft mouse
models and it compares favourably to approved monoclonal antibodies
such as Imfinzi(R) , Tecentriq(R) and Bavencio(R) at the doses
administered.
Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive Officer,
commented:
"The strategic partnership with Selexis allows Avacta to access
the technology and know-how to develop high-expressing CHO cell
lines as well as the extensive experience of developing a range of
Fc fusion proteins for clinical manufacturing. These cell lines are
the essential basis of clinical manufacturing of AVA004 and this
partnership supports Avacta's strategy to demonstrate safety and
tolerability of the Affimer platform in humans with a planned
IND/CTA by the end of 2020.
The ultimate aim is to combine AVA004 with other Affimer
checkpoint modulators in bispecific cancer immunotherapies, and
with novel chemotherapies as drug conjugates and combination
therapies utilising proprietary tumour microenvironment targeting
chemistry. These approaches seek to combine modulation of the
adaptive immune response with stimulation of the innate immune
system, with the aim of improving the clinical outcome for the
sizeable proportion of solid tumour patients having "cold" tumours
that do not respond to checkpoint inhibitors alone."
Marco Bocci, PhD, Dpharm, Selexis Senior Vice President,
Licensing and Business Development commented:
"Our agreement with Avacta is a result of Selexis' leadership in
bringing an innovative technology solution to our partners and the
capability to enhance speed in drug development, including for
those developing therapeutics that are beyond traditional
monoclonal antibodies. It is rewarding for us to play a role as
Avacta prepares to advance its first Affimer clinical candidate
into the clinic."
- Ends -
For further information from Avacta Group plc, please
contact:
Avacta Group plc Tel: +44 (0) 844 414 0452
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive www.avacta.com
Officer
Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial
Officer
finnCap Ltd (Nominated Adviser Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 0500
and Joint Broker) www.finncap.com
Geoff Nash / Giles Rolls - Corporate
Finance
Tim Redfern - ECM Tel: +44 (0) 203 705 9318
Tel: +44 (0) 203 705 9217
WG Partners (Joint Broker) www.wgpartners.co.uk
Nigel Birks / Nigel Barnes
David Wilson / Claes Spang
Turner Pope Investments Tel: +44 (0) 203 621 4120
James Pope / Ben Turner www.turnerpope.com
Yellow Jersey PR (Financial Media
and IR) Tel: +44 (0)7764 947 137
Sarah Hollins Tel: +44 (0)7544 275 882
Harriet Jackson avacta@yellowjerseypr.com
Zyme Communications (Trade and Tel: +44 (0)7787 502 947
Regional Media) katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com
Katie Odgaard
For further information from Selexis SA, please contact:
Selexis (Company Enquiries) Tel: +1 602-953-1716
Robert Meister- Head, Corporate
Communications
Sam Brown Inc. (Media Enquiries) Tel: +1 207-233-2430
Kelly Conlon kellyconlon@sambrown.com
About Avacta Group plc - https://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 as well as partnered development
programmes. Avacta is commercialising non-therapeutic Affimer
reagents through licensing to developers of life sciences research
tools and diagnostics.
To register for news alerts by email go to
www.avacta.com/investor-news-email-alerts
About Selexis SA
Selexis SA, a JSR Life Sciences Company, is the global leader in
cell line development with best-in-class modular technology and
highly specialized solutions that enable the life sciences industry
to rapidly discover, develop and commercialize innovative medicines
and vaccines. Our global partners are utilizing Selexis
technologies to advance more than 121 drug products in clinical
development and the manufacture of five commercial products. As
part of a comprehensive drug development process, the Company's
technologies shorten development timelines and reduce manufacturing
risks. JSR's CDMO service offering leverages the full capabilities
of Selexis' proprietary SUREtechnology Platform(TM) to offer an
end-to-end solution to the industry.
Selexis' SUREtechnology Platform is based on Selexis SGE(R)
(Selexis Genetic Elements) - novel human DNA-based elements that
control the dynamic organization of chromatin across mammalian
cells. These elements increase transcription rates of transgenes by
rendering the expression cassette independent of the locus of
integration and thus allowing higher and more stable expression of
any recombinant proteins. SUREtechnology improves the way cells are
used in the discovery, development and manufacturing of recombinant
proteins and immune checkpoint inhibitors.
More information is available at www.selexis.com.
- Web www.selexis.com
- LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/selexis-sa
- Twitter www.twitter.com/SelexisSA
- Facebook www.facebook.com/SelexisSA
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END
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