Drug discovery partnership

23 March 2015

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or "the Group")

Drug discovery partnership

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents for human and animal healthcare, announces that it has entered into a commercial partnership with PhoreMost Limited, ("PhoreMost") to discover and commercialise new drug targets, Affimer reagents and therapeutics.

PhoreMost is a UK based drug discovery company headed by Chris Torrance who also founded Horizon Discovery and led it to become the fastest growing biotech company in the UK. Recently Chris established PhoreMost which is aiming to identify new druggable targets in cancer and other diseases using its novel SiteSeeker technology - a screening platform that can rapidly identify unexpected, or hidden drug targets that cannot be found readily using conventional methods.

The SiteSeeker technology requires a large library of binding proteins for which Affimers are ideal. SiteSeeker uses live cells, in what is called a phenotypic screen, to probe for unexpected and unexploited drug targets. PhoreMost aims to use Affimers in tandem with SiteSeeker to discover new drug targets and screen for small molecule therapeutics that act on these targets. In addition, this discovery programme will generate novel Affimers which could be used as reagents to assist in the drugs' development, or as therapeutics themselves.

Under the terms of the agreement, Avacta is entitled to a royalty on PhoreMost's revenues that are generated using Affimers including near term services income from R&D partnerships, and on license income and future sales of all assets that are generated such as the new drug targets and small molecule therapeutics, as well as novel Affimers.

Dr Alastair Smith, Group Chief Executive commented: "This programme is yet another example where Affimers provide not just an alternative to antibodies but also an opportunity to do something revolutionary, for which Affimers may be uniquely suited, in discovering new small molecule drug targets and therapeutics.

"PhoreMost has a novel and powerful technology in SiteSeeker for addressing so called "undruggable" targets and Affimers provide an ideal protein library for this purpose. The value to Avacta is two fold: firstly, from a share in the near term income from PhoreMost's R&D partnerships and secondly, in the upside from the licensing of new drug targets and new drugs discovered using Affimers, as well as the Affimers themselves.

It is extremely exciting to be working with Chris, who has a world-class track record and had great success with Horizon in this area, in his new venture. I very much look forward to seeing this partnership develop."

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About 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 operates through two divisions:

About PhoreMost

PhoreMost is a new-model drug discovery company based in Cambridge, UK. Using its core expertise to open up new 'druggable' target space and working with a global network of co-invested academic and industrial collaboration partners, they aim to bring a wide array of novel 'targeted' therapies more efficiently to market and pass these cost savings onto patients.