RE: Daewoong collaboration19 Nov 2020 11:49
It could be - funny how all the focus on LFT/BAMS has left this RNS from end of July to go well under the radar. Daewoong must have liked what they saw with their initial deal and liked it even more to expand that.
From 29Jul RNS
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and reagents is pleased to announce an expansion of its collaboration and license agreement with Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (KSX: 069620) and AffyXell Therapeutics, the joint venture established in South Korea by the two companies, to develop stem cell treatments incorporating Avacta's neutralising Affimer therapy for the treatment of seriously ill patients with COVID-19 and to also prepare to rapidly develop similar therapies for future global pandemics.
Respiratory diseases such as ?COVID-19 can cause serious damage to the lungs as a consequence of over-activation of the patient's immune system, resulting in cytokine release syndrome that can potentially lead to multiple organ failure and death. Stem cell therapies offer a very promising approach to repair the damage to lung tissues in these pulmonary diseases by controlling the immune balance.
AffyXell Therapeutics, the next-generation 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 expansion of the agreement between Avacta, Daewoong Pharmaceutical and AffyXell announced today extends 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 whilst also producing neutralising Affimer molecules to prevent the progression of the disease.
AffyXell will engineer mesenchymal stem cells to express SARS-COV-2 neutralising Affimer molecules in order to develop treatments for seriously ill COVID-19 patients, and will also prepare for rapid development of next-generation stem cell therapies for future infectious respiratory disease outbreaks.