Avacta Group Regulatory News (AVCT)

23 Apr 2009 07:00

Avacta Group plc

Product Launch - Flagship biophysical analysis instrument

Cost saving analysis technology for biological drug developers

Avacta Group plc ("Avacta" or the "Company"), the company providing innovative,high value technologies and services to the pharmaceutical and diagnosticsmarkets, is pleased to announce the launch of its flagship technology product,`Optim.'Biopharmaceuticals are complex, fragile and considered difficult tocharacterise during research and development. This makes it difficult for drugdevelopers to identify those products with the highest likelihood of reachingmarket. Consequently, the failure rate of products in development is high-leading to considerable costs in bringing a product to market and longdevelopment timescales.Optim is a high-end bench top laboratory instrument designed to performadvanced biophysical analysis on very small samples of biopharmaceuticals andother biological samples. This allows drug developers to acquire vitalinformation about their compounds' performance at an early stage, helping themto reduce the risk of late stage failure and to bring optimised products tomarket quicker and more cheaply.Optim fills a significant gap in the market through providing detailed analysis usingonly very small sample volumes. For the first time this enables drug developers togain vital information about product performance in the early stages of productdevelopment when very limited quantities of material are available. Its easeof use means that its advanced analysis can be widely accessed by non-expertusers thereby broadening the potential market size. Avacta is also developingfollow-on products that will, when added to Optim, deliver a comprehensive"protein analysis workstation" for drug developers.The Company believes that there is a substantial market readily accessible inthe near term through Avacta's existing market reach, created by its contractservices business, as well as a larger worldwide market to be accessed throughcommercial partners. Optim has no known direct competition and can be targetedat other fields of protein research in industry. The ultimate size of theaddressable opportunity for the product is therefore very significant.A presentation to showcase the technology will be given today by the managementof Avacta at 10:30am at the offices of Haggie Financial LLP, 10 Fenchurch Ave,EC3M 5BN. To attend please contact Nicholas Nelson or Kathy Boate.

Alastair Smith, Chief Executive, Avacta, commented:

"Optim is the first in a range of high value analytical products for the biopharmaceutical sector which Avacta has under development and we believe that the substantial benefits it has to offer to end users are very clear.

"Avacta is capable of using biophysics to revolutionise the way in whichbiological samples, such as biopharmaceuticals or clinical samples, can beanalysed rapidly. In delivering an instrument for biopharmaceutical developers,we have targeted the largest immediate market that Avacta can address and weare looking forward to the wider application of our core technology indiagnostics and elsewhere.

"I am delighted that this important point has been reached as planned and within budget, which is a testament to the development team, and I look forward to reporting on the continuing progress of the Company."

23 April 2009Enquiries:Avacta Group plc Tel: 0870 835 4367

Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer www.avacta.com

Haggie Financial LLP Tel: 020 7417 8989 Nicholas Nelson / Kathy Boate Nicholas.nelson@haggie.co.uk Nominated Adviser: Tel: 020 7776 6550 Daniel Stewart & Company Plc

Charlotte Stranner/Simon Leathers

Novum Securities Limited Tel: 020 7562 4700 Henry Turcan Notes to Editors:About AvactaAvacta was spun-out from the University of Leeds in 2004 by its currentmanagement team as a biophysics company, with the aim of combining thedisciplines of physics and biology to develop innovative technologies andexpert technical services to address needs in the pharmaceutical, defence andclinical diagnostics markets. Avacta has a core bio-analytical technologydevelopment programme addressing the needs of the biopharmaceutical sector tofully characterise their new products at the earliest stage in theirdevelopment to reduce the risk of late stage failure. High value solutions indefence and clinical diagnostics are also being provided by these corebio-analytical technologies. A successful and growing part of the Avactabusiness model is its technical services arm, Avacta Analytical Ltd, which isfocused on providing leading edge contract research to the biopharmaceuticaland healthcare/personal-care materials sectors. Avacta listed on AIM in August2006 through the reverse takeover of Readybuy plc which changed its name toAvacta Group plc.