\u00a0Life sciences group Avacta Therapeutics has secured \u00a312.5m from investors as it looks to push its cancer drug pipeline towards a series of potentially significant clinical milestones.<\/p>\n
The AIM-listed company has raised the money through a placing and subscription of new shares at 68p each, giving it funding to extend its cash runway into the second quarter of 2027.<\/p>\n
A total of 18.4 million new shares will be issued, representing around 3.9 per cent of Avacta’s existing share capital.<\/p>\n
The fundraising follows last month’s announcement that Avacta had achieved clinical proof of mechanism for AVA6103, its next-generation cancer treatment, in an early-stage trial.<\/p>\n
The shares were issued at a 5.6 per cent discount to Avacta’s last closing price of 72p before trading was suspended under its capital access window.<\/p>\n
The company said the fresh funds would allow it to progress several programmes, while strengthening its position in ongoing discussions with potential partners.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Christina Coughlin said the company had made “considerable progress” during 2026, with AVA6103 moving from regulatory approval into clinical trials.<\/p>\n
Early data from the Phase 1 FOCUS-01 trial showed evidence that the drug’s controlled-release mechanism was working in patients as intended.<\/p>\n
Avacta expects to report the first clinical efficacy data from the trial in the first half of 2027.<\/p>\n
It is also progressing AVA6000, its first-generation pre|CISION cancer treatment, through Phase 1b development, while its next-generation dual-payload programme AVA6207 is moving towards selection of a clinical candidate.<\/p>\n
That selection is expected this quarter, ahead of work towards regulatory-enabling studies.<\/p>\n
Coughlin said the fundraising demonstrated confidence in Avacta and its pre|CISION platform, which is designed to improve the delivery of highly potent cancer treatments while limiting toxicity.<\/p>\n
She said the funding would take the business through “multiple value inflection points”, including the AVA6103 efficacy data and AVA6207 candidate selection.<\/p>\n
The latest raise includes a subscription by directors, with the wider placing led by Zeus Capital.<\/p>\n
Avacta said the fundraising would also give it greater strength in talks with potential partners as it seeks to maximise the value of its pipeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The AIM-listed company has raised the money through a placing and subscription of new shares at 68p each, giving it funding to extend its cash runway into the second quarter of 2027<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271992,"featured_media":2154596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,120781,137107],"coauthors":[137100],"class_list":["post-2161112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-markets","category-pharmaceutical","tag-featured-story","tag-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"\n