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(Sharecast News) - Biotherapeutics and reagents developer Avacta Group announced an expansion of its collaboration and license agreement with Daewoong Pharmaceutical and AffyXell Therapeutics - the joint venture established in South Korea by the two companies - to develop stem cell treatments on Wednesday.
The AIM-traded firm said the expansion would incorporate its neutralising 'Affimer' therapy for the treatment of seriously ill patients with Covid-19, and prepare for the rapid development of similar therapies for future global pandemics.
It explained that respiratory diseases such as the Covid-19 coronavirus could cause serious damage to the lungs as a result of over-activation of the patient's immune system, resulting in cytokine release syndrome that could potentially lead to multiple organ failure and death.
Stem cell therapies offered a "very promising approach" to repair the damage to lung tissues in such pulmonary diseases, by controlling the immune balance.
AffyXell Therapeutics - the cell and gene therapy joint venture between Avacta and Daewoong Pharmaceutical - is developing a novel class of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) treatments that are engineered to also produce Affimer therapies in the patient at the site of action .
The company said the expansion of the agreement extended the scope of the partnership to include Affimer molecules that target viruses, such as coronaviruses, in order to develop therapies that repair the lung damage caused by Covid-19, while also producing neutralising Affimer molecules to prevent the progression of the disease.
AffyXell would engineer mesenchymal stem cells to express SARS-CoV-2-neutralising Affimer molecules in order to develop treatments for seriously ill Covid-19 patients, and would also prepare for the rapid development of next-generation stem cell therapies for future infectious respiratory disease outbreaks.
"AffyXell will address the need over the coming years for advanced stem cell therapies to treat lung damage caused by cytokine release syndrome suffered by Covid-19 patients and, at the same time, help prevent disease progression in these patients through the action of a neutralising Affimer therapy," said chief executive officer Dr Alastair Smith.
"More broadly, one of the key areas of unmet clinical need that AffyXell can address with its next-generation mesenchymal stem cell therapies is acute pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
"We, and our partners in South Korea, are very excited by the potential to develop life improving treatments for patients with these serious respiratory diseases as well as Covid-19."
At 1342 BST, shares in Avacta Group were down 1.43% at 147.85p.
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