LIFE sciences group Avacta has made “solid” progress after establishing a research partnership with Leeds General Infirmary and made appointments to complete its senior management team.
The AIM-listed business is commercialising affimers, which are engineered alternative to antibodies, and were originally developed in Cambridge and then in laboratories at the University of Leeds.
Avacta raised £21m last August to support in-house drug development.
It has begun a “significant research collaboration” with Dr Ramzi Ajjan at the Leeds General Infirmary, which is a two year pre-clinical study to look at the effects of certain Affimer reagents on clot formation and breakdown
Dr Alastair Smith, Avacta’s chief executive, said he was “pleased with progress” as customers and partners evaluated its technology, creating potential licensing and commercial relationships.
He added: “During the coming months, we will update the market in detail on the progress of our two principal in-house therapeutic development programmes that are focused on immune checkpoint inhibitors for cancer therapies and on modulators of blood clotting.
“We also expect to establish new facilities in Cambridge for the expanding therapeutic development activity under Dr Amrik Basran, and later in the year to move into larger premises in Wetherby to support the Affimer reagents development and manufacturing operations.”
It has today announced the appointment of Dr Philippe Cotrel as chief commercial officer while Tony Gardiner started work as its chief financial officer earlier this month.
Avacta expects to show revenues of £1.0m in the six months to January 2016, an increase of around 40%, with full-year revenues on target to reach £2.5m.
