Avacta Group Regulatory News (AVCT)

6 Oct 2009 07:00



Avacta Group plc

Momentum builds for flagship technology - 

Optim: huge annual revenues opportunity

Reducing risk and costs for biopharmaceutical developers

Avacta Group plc ("Avacta" or the "Company"), which provides innovative, high value technologies and services to the pharmaceutical and diagnostics markets, is pleased to announce that, following the very recent announcement of its first order from a global biopharmaceutical developer for its recently launched flagship product, Optim, a second order from a similar global biopharmaceutical company has been received. 

This is significant news in that it demonstrates the start of sales momentum and Optim's powerful value proposition. Moreover, it indicates the effectiveness of Avacta's marketing team which bodes well for the anticipated near term launch of MIDAS, a high value, high end bench top instrument for the veterinary and human diagnostics sectors.

Costing up to £100k and with a large addressable market encompassing the biopharmaceutical sector, parts of the chemical and food industries and the academic life sciences research sector, the revenues from Optim and future hardware upgrades are potentially huge. Moreover, each unit should deliver an attractive recurring revenue stream from consumable sales, annual servicing, software updates and support packages.

About Optim:

Optim fills a significant gap in the market providing detailed analysis using only very small sample volumes. For the first time this enables drug developers to gain vital information about product performance in the early stages of product development, when very limited quantities of material are available, helping to reduce the risk of later stage failure. 

An Optim system can cost up to £100k. However, since Optim uses minute amounts of sample and is fully automated, it can deliver results in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of other methods and can therefore yield a return on investment for customers in only a few months.

Alastair Smith, Chief Executive, Avacta Group, commented:

"I am extremely pleased to announce our second order for Optim, received very shortly following the first which was announced last week. This is a clear manifestation of the strong sales pipeline that I reported on and further supports our confidence in future sales levels."

"Optim has been received by potential customers enthusiastically as a unique tool that will allow them to characterize their drug compounds at an early stage of development and provide information that will help reduce the risk of product development and ultimately reduce the cost to patients of these new drugs. The value proposition to the end user is very compelling."

6 October 2009

Enquiries:

Notes to Editors:

About Avacta

Avacta was spun-out from the University of Leeds in 2004 by its current management team as a biophysics company, with the aim of combining the disciplines of physics and biology to develop innovative technologies and expert technical services to address unmet needs in the biopharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Avacta has a core bio-analytical technology development programme addressing the needs of the biopharmaceutical sector to fully characterise their new products at the earliest stage in their development to reduce the risk of late stage failure. High end analytical instruments and leading edge contract research services are being provided to the biopharmaceutical and healthcare/personal-care materials sectors through the Group's biotech support division, Avacta Analytical. High value solutions for rapid, point of care diagnostics based on these core bio-analytical technologies, with a near term focus on veterinary diagnostics, are being delivered through Avacta Animal Health. In the longer term these technologies will be transferred into the human clinical diagnostics market. Avacta listed on AIM in August 2006.