Healthcare business invests £10m in launch of alternative to antibodies
A LEEDS University spin out is scaling up with the potential to be a global business after investing £10m in the launch of its alternatives to antibodies in the $55bn drug research market.
Wetherby-based Avacta Life Sciences, which provides innovative diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents aimed at reducing the cost of human and animal healthcare, has created a new type of protein to replace antibodies in the $55bn worldwide research, diagnostics and pharmaceuticals markets.
It is investing £10m in launching these new products, offering dramatic reductions in research timescales and opening up new areas of drug discovery in both industry and academia.
Avacta Life Sciences, part of AIM listed Avacta Group, has created a catalogue of what it calls Affimers, an engineered protein alternative to antibodies and is manufacturing them at its site in Wetherby. The company is also providing researchers with bespoke Affimers that address their specific research requirements through a custom service.
Antibodies have a worldwide market worth $55bn, of which the majority is in pharmaceuticals, where a third of all drugs in development are antibodies.
“Our patented technology offers reliable and easy to adopt solutions to some really widespread and difficult problems in a global market worth billions and we have the resources and backing to scale up rapidly as demand grows” says Alastair Smith, CEO of Avacta.
Avacta Group created Avacta Life Sciences to exploit the Affimer intellectual property it acquired from Leeds University’s Institute for Molecular Medicine.
The company is investing in product development and manufacturing capacity as well as in commercialisation of Affimers and in anticipation of this catalogue launch has expanded its senior management team with the recruitment of Dr Matt Johnson formerly the head of R&D at Abcam, the market leader in antibody supply, to head up operations.
The company raised £10m in a share placing in May to support the scale up and commercial launch of Affimers.
