Avacta Group Regulatory News (AVCT)

14 April 2014

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")

Pancreatitis test for dogs launched

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare, announces that it has completed development and validation of a new test for pancreatitis in dogs.

Pancreatitis is a very common inflammatory disorder of the pancreas in dogs of which there are 83 million in the US and 8.5 million in the UK. The acute form of the disease occurs in around 1.5% of dogs whilst the prevalence of the chronic form is reported to be as high as 30% suggesting a large market for a pancreatitis diagnostic test. However, the market is even larger than the prevalence of the disease alone would suggest because most dogs with pancreatitis present with common gastrointestinal signs of upset, such as vomiting, anorexia, painful abdomen, hunched posture, diarrhoea, fever, dehydration and lack of energy; with vomiting being the most common symptom. Consequently, a much larger number of animals would be screened for pancreatitis than may eventually be diagnosed with the disorder.

Avacta's new pancreatitis test utilises the same approach as its unique canine lymphoma blood test in which an algorithm is used to combine the results of two common blood tests with other symptoms and other information about the dog such as age and breed. Currently there is only one other proprietary test for pancreatitis in the market. Avacta's internal validation of its new pancreatitis test performance shows that is has better sensitivity, specificity and predictive capability than the established test when tested on confirmed pancreatitis cases clinically diagnosed by vets at a large referral centre in the UK using other techniques such as ultrasound.

Avacta will commercialise the test by providing "pay per click" access to the diagnostic algorithm which will allow veterinary laboratories world wide to get an accurate and immediate diagnosis for pancreatitis by submitting the results of two blood tests commonly run in house along with other patient information on-line. In due course the blood tests themselves will also be offered on the Sensipod in-clinic analyser allowing vets to access the same on-line pancreatitis diagnostic.

Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta said: "This is an exciting development for the Group and addresses one of our key strategic objectives for the Animal Health Division of broadening its product portfolio outside of its historical focus on animal allergies and entering new markets that have not been accessible with allergy tests. The performance of our pancreatitis test is excellent and, with the added benefit to the customer of immediate diagnosis from test results run in their own laboratory rather than having to send samples away, we believe our test will be highly competitive in a large market.

We continue to work hard to develop new tests for our Sensitest, Sensipak and Sensipod platforms and I look forward to updating the market as we bring each new product to market."

Enquiries:

About Avacta Group plc - www.avacta.com

Avacta Group plc is a global provider of innovative technologies, consumables and reagents for the life science markets, from drug discovery to diagnostics. Avacta operates through three divisions:

Avacta joined AIM in August 2006 and is based in Wetherby, England.