Avacta Group Regulatory News (AVCT)

28 Sep 2009 07:00

Avacta Group plc Commercialisation of flagship technology - Optim Reducing risk and costs for biopharmaceutical developers

Avacta Group plc ("Avacta" or the "Company"), the company providing innovative, high value technologies and services to the pharmaceutical and diagnostics markets, is pleased to announce the first order from a global biopharmaceutical developer for its recently launched flagship product Optim, an analytical technology that is designed to reduce risk in biopharmaceutical development and help drug companies bring optimised products to market quicker and at lower cost.

The Directors believe that this is a significant and pivotal step for the Company as it provides validation for its flagship product and a clear demonstration of market demand.

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.

Additionally Optim has several hardware/software add-ons and consumables currently being developed in response to other clearly identified market needs. These add-ons will, when integrated with Optim, build up a comprehensive and unique biophysical analysis system for biopharmaceutical drug developers. The Company is committed to bring these additional products to market as quickly as possible.

Alastair Smith, Chief Executive, Avacta Group, commented:

"Optim is designed to revolutionise the way in which biological drugs are developed. It will make a major contribution to optimizing product performance and reducing the risk and cost of drug development, particularly when applied in the early stages of the drug development process when it could identify problems that cause expensive later stage product failure. Optim will help drug developers bring better products to market quicker and more cheaply, which should result in a reduction in the cost of these new drugs to patients.

"I am delighted to announce to the market that we have converted the first order from a strong pipeline and that the very positive response we have received from our discussions with potential customers gives us confidence in future sales levels.

"We will continue to work hard towards building a strong, profitable Group focused on providing high value products and services to support businesses in the Life Sciences sector through commercialization of our own technology and potentially through further acquisitions."

28th September 2009Enquiries:Avacta Group plc Tel: 0870 835 4367 Alastair Smith, Chief Executive www.avacta.com Officer Haggie Financial LLP Tel: 020 7417 8989 Kathy Boate/Nicholas Nelson Kathy.boate@haggie.co.uk Nominated Adviser: Tel: 020 7776 6550 Daniel Stewart & Company Plc Simon Leathers Novum Securities Limited Tel: 020 7399 9400 Henry Turcan 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. Longer term these technologies will be transferred into the human clinical diagnostics market. Avacta listed on AIM in August 2006.