Last checked at 7 Jul 2015 08:00
7th July 2015
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group")
Board Change
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for life sciences, today announces that Tim Sykes has informed the Board of his intention to step down as Chief Financial Officer of the Group, a role that has been part-time since IPO. Following the recent significant progress made with Affimers announced today, the Directors have concluded that it is now appropriate for the CFO role to become full-time and, because of his other business interests, Tim does not wish to be considered for a full-time role.
The Board will commence the process of identifying a suitable full-time replacement and Tim will remain with the Group until a suitable replacement is found to ensure an orderly handover.
The Board would like to thank Tim for his contribution to the Group's success since its IPO in August 2006.
Dr. Trevor Nicholls, Non-executive Chairman of Avacta Group, commented:
"The Board would like to thank Tim for all his hard work and many contributions to the Group since its IPO in August 2006. We wish him the best of success for the future."
Enquiries:
Avacta Group plc Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer | Tel: +44 (0) 844 414 0452 www.avacta.com |
Numis Securities Limited Michael Meade / Freddie Barnfield - Nominated Adviser James Black - Corporate Broking | Tel: +44 (0) 207 260 1000 www.numiscorp.com |
Media Enquiries FTI Consulting Simon Conway/Natalie Garland-Collins | Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1000 avacta@fticonsulting.com |
Notes to Editors
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's principal focus is on its proprietary Affimer® technology which is a novel engineered alternative to antibodies that has wide application in Life Sciences for diagnostics, therapeutics and general research and development.
Antibodies dominate markets worth in excess of $50bn despite their shortcomings. Affimers have been designed to address many of these negative performance issues, principally: the time taken to generate new antibodies, the reliance on an animal's immune response, poor specificity in many cases, and batch to batch variability. Affimers are based on a small protein that can be quickly generated to bind with high specificity and affinity to a wide range of protein targets.
Avacta is commercialising the Affimer reagents through custom Affimer services to provide bespoke solutions to customers, via a growing on-line catalogue of Affimer reagents and, in the longer term, by developing Affimers with therapeutic properties for out-licensing.