(Alliance News) - Avacta Group PLC on Wednesday said it has expanded the collaboration with LG Chem Life Sciences, which has nominated the second and third drug targets for the partnership.
The multi-target therapeutics development agreement with LG Chem was signed in December 2018 and provided upfront and near-term development milestone payments, plus longer-term clinical development milestones for Avacta, it said.
The AIM-listed biotherapeutics company said it has generated a "large" number of Affimer proteins that bind to the first drug target nominated by LG Chem.
These candidate affimer molecules are now being optimised by Avacta for LG Chem, to then carry out pre-clinical development, successful completion of which would trigger the next payment to Avacta.
LG Chem has now expanded the collaboration by nominating the second and third drug targets and Avacta is beginning the discovery programmes for Affimer binders to those new targets. Each of these programmes also has the potential for further milestone payments, Avacta noted.
"I am very pleased with the excellent progress made in the first programme with LG Chem. Not only is this an important validation of the Affimer platform, confirming that it can be used to quickly generate potential candidate drug molecules for development, but it also means that we have taken an important step towards receiving the next substantial milestone payment under our collaboration agreement," said Avacta Chief Executive Alastair Smith.
"Our partnership with LG Chem goes from strength to strength with their decision to nominate the next two drug targets."
Avacta shares were trading 9.9% higher in London on Wednesday at 19.45 pence each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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Avacta Group (AVCT)