LONDON (Alliance News) - Avacta Group PLC on Monday said it has selected a clinical development candidate AVA004 for first-time-in-human clinical trials of its Affimer platform.
Affimer technology, an alternative to antibodies, is Avacta's primary focus. Antibodies are produced by living beings as a way of recognising foreign material in the body. They detect these foreign materials and bind to them.
This ability to identify and bind to substances has a range of uses in medicine, and antibodies can be used to diagnose infection and treat cancers. However, it can take some time to produce new antibodies, and these antibodies are not always as specific as they need to be.
Affimer, which is based on a small protein that can be produced quickly and has a high specificity and affinity to a large number of targets, hopes to offer an alternative.
Avacta has created a wide range of Affimer inhibitors of PD-L1, a protein present on the surface of a cell. When it is present on the surface of a cancer cell, PD-L1 suppresses the immune system and prevents it from attacking that cell.
Affimer molecule AVA004 has been chosen as the clinical candidate for trials of Affimer because it had demonstrated "excellent" properties in trials, the company said. AVA004 has been shown in these trials to inhibit tumour growth as well as three antibody inhibitors of PD-L1 in animal models.
Avacta said the selection of AVA004 puts it on track to submit US indicative new drug and clinical trial applications for an Affimer PD-L1 inhibitor by the end of 2020, to be shortly followed by dosing of first patients.
Alastair Smith, Avacta's chief executive officer, said: "Selection of the Affimer PD-L1 inhibitor candidate for clinical development is an important milestone in our development of the Affimer therapeutic platform. The group remains firmly on track to submit an application to the regulators for a first-time-in-human clinical study late in 2020.
"Demonstration of appropriate safety and tolerability in humans is key to de-risking the platform overall for partners and therefore key to the number and value of licensing deals in the future."
Shares in Avacta were trading flat at 30.50 pence on Monday morning.
Avacta Group (AVCT)