Avacta Group PLC on Thursday said its chemotherapy drug, AVA6000, has been given the go-ahead to advance to higher dosing in clinical trials after a positive review.

Avacta shares were up 12% to 91.90 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

The Cambridge, England-based drug developer and diagnostics company announced that the first-in-human Phase I trial of AVA6000 pro-doxorubicin will advance to the next dose cohort following a positive review of the safety data from the dosing of the first cohort.

AVA6000 is a novel form of doxorubicin that has been modified with Avacta’s Precision platform to improve its safety and therapeutic index, meaning that the chemotherapy’s cell killing effect will be reduced.

AVA6000 has the potential to significantly increase its therapeutic index by reducing the incidence of adverse effects, including cardiotoxicity and myelosuppression, the company said.

Following a review, Avacta’s safety data monitoring committee has recommended that the clinical trial continues as planned and escalates to a higher dose of AVA6000.

Chief Executive Alastair Smith said: ‘We are delighted with the SDMC’s recommendation to move on to the next dose of AVA6000 in our dose escalation study following its positive review of the safety data from patients in the first cohort.’

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