Avacta sees revenues rise and losses narrow
AIM-LISTED healthcare business Avacta says it is “very optimistic” for 2017 after narrowing its losses and reporting a 19% increase in revenue.
For the year to July 31, the diagnostic tools business said “substantial progress has been made against key objectives” as it announced group revenues of £2.17m, up from £1.81m last time, while total loss for the period reduced to £4.65m, down from £9.99m in 2015.
The Wetherby-based business said its commercialisation strategy was progressing well in key strategic markets and the company is well funded with cash balances of £19.52m at year end.
Avacta has been concentrating on developing affirmers, an engineered alternative to antibodies, that were originally developed in Cambridge and then in laboratories at the University of Leeds.
The company has identified three proteins which could be used to develop new tests to diagnose the Zika virus from its early stages.
Alastair Smith, chief executive, said: “We have made excellent progress in our strategy to commercialise Affimer reagents for research, diagnostics and therapeutics. There are a significant number of Affimer technology evaluations ongoing and we continue to grow our pipeline of partnerships that will ultimately deliver a stream of “Affimer powered” products to help underpin long term revenue growth from non-therapeutic applications.
“Importantly, the positive results from the first animal safety and efficacy studies with our Affimer therapeutic programmes were an important milestone for the company. They significantly de-risk the Affimer technology as a therapeutic platform, demonstrating that Affimers have the right properties to be drugs in terms of serum half-life, functionality and efficacy in vivo. We have strengthened our belief that Affimers have the potential to become an important new class of biological drug that could eventually rival antibodies.”
He added: “We were pleased with the success of our programme to develop specific Affimer binders to the Zika NS-1 protein as this is a good example of the speed with which high quality Affimer reagents can be developed to answer an urgent need where there is a gap in the antibody offering.
“We are very optimistic about 2017 and I look forward to updating the market as we develop these and other products further with clinical and commercial partners.”
Avacta employs 90 staff at two sites in Wetherby and Cambridge that have recently been fitted-out to create state-of-the-art laboratory facilities.
