Last checked at 16 Mar 2021 17:08
16 March 2021
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
Issue of Equity
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of innovative cancer therapies and diagnostics based on its proprietary Affimer® and pre|CISION™ platforms, today announces that following the exercise of share options by an employee it has issued and allotted in total 128,400 new ordinary shares of 10 pence each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares").
Application will be made for the Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and dealings are expected to commence on 23 March 2021 ("Admission"). The Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares of the Company.
Following Admission, the Company's enlarged issued share capital will be 253,374,745. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
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For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:
Avacta Group plc Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial Officer
| Tel: +44 (0) 844 414 0452 www.avacta.com
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finnCap Ltd (Nomad and Joint Broker) Geoff Nash / Giles Rolls / Teddy Whiley - Corporate Finance Tim Redfern - ECM | Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 0500 www.finncap.com
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Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Joint Broker) |
Tel: +44 (0) 207 710 7600 |
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Nicholas Moore / Nick Adams / Fred Walsh / Ben Maddison | www.stifel.com |
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| FTI Consulting (Financial Media and IR) | Tel: +44 (0) 203 727 1000 | ||||
| Simon Conway / Stephanie Cuthbert | avacta@fticonsulting.com | ||||
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Zyme Communications (Trade and Regional Media) Katie Odgaard
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Tel: +44 (0)7787 502 947 katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com
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About Avacta Group plc - https://www.avacta.com
Avacta Group is developing novel cancer immunotherapies and powerful diagnostics based on its two proprietary platforms - Affimer® biologics and pre|CISION™ tumour targeted chemotherapies.
The Affimer platform is an alternative to antibodies derived from a small human protein. Despite their shortcomings, antibodies currently dominate markets, such as diagnostics and therapeutics, worth in excess of $100bn. Affimer technology has been designed to address many of these negative performance issues, principally: the time taken to generate new antibodies and the reliance on an animal's immune response; poor specificity in many cases; their large size, complexity and high cost of manufacture.
Avacta's pre|CISION targeted chemotherapy platform releases active chemotherapy in the tumour, which limits the systemic exposure that causes damage to healthy tissues, and thereby improves the overall safety and therapeutic potential of these powerful anti-cancer treatments.
The Group comprises two divisions: The therapeutics development activities are based in Cambridge, UK and the Group is generating near-term revenues from Affimer reagents for diagnostics, bioprocessing and research, through a separate diagnostics business unit based in Wetherby, UK.
Avacta's Diagnostics Division works with partners world-wide to develop bespoke Affimer reagents for third party products. The Group is also developing an in-house pipeline of Affimer-based diagnostic assays including the AffiDX® SARS-CoV-2 Lateral Flow Rapid Antigen Test and AffiDX® BAMS™ SARS-CoV-2 Assay in partnership with Adeptrix Inc.
Avacta's Therapeutics Division is addressing a critical gap in current cancer treatment - the lack of a durable response to current immunotherapies experienced by most patients. By combining its two proprietary platforms the Group is building a wholly owned pipeline of novel cancer therapies deigned to be effective for all cancer patients. In 2021 Avacta will commence a phase 1 first-in-human, open label, dose-escalation and expansion study of AVA6000 Pro-doxorubicin, the Group's lead pre|CISION™ prodrug, in patients with locally advanced or metastatic selected solid tumours.
Avacta has established drug development partnerships with pharma and biotech, including a research collaboration with ModernaTX,Inc. (formerly Moderna Therapeutics Inc.), a multi-target deal with LG Chem worth up to $400m, a joint venture in South Korea with Daewoong Pharmaceutical focused on cell and gene therapies incorporating Affimer immune-modulators, a partnership with ADC Therapeutics to develop Affimer-drug conjugates and a collaboration with Point Biopharma to develop radiopharmaceuticals based on the pre|CISION™ platform. Avacta continues to actively seek to license its proprietary platforms in a range of therapeutic areas.
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