25 March 2021

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or "the Group")

Director Change 

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of innovative cancer therapies and diagnostics based on its proprietary Affimer^® and pre|CISION^™ platforms, announces that the Dr Mike Owen has stepped down from his role as Non-executive Director of the Avacta Group plc Board, a position which he has held since 2015, with effect from 24 March 2021.

Mike will continue with Avacta Group, in the non-Board role of Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr Eliot Forster, Chairman of Avacta Group commented:

"We are grateful for Mike many years of invaluable contribution to the Board of Directors, bringing his incomparable experience and expertise to the company. Mike is one of the industry's outstanding leaders and Avacta has been lucky to benefit from his contributions. I very much look forward to continuing to work with Mike in his role as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board."

Dr Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta Group commented:

"Avacta has benefited hugely from Mike's scientific and commercial input at the Board and I am very pleased that we will be able to continue to draw upon Mike's vast therapeutics experience in his role as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Group.

I would like to add my personal thanks to Mike for his support and advice over the years which has been invaluable to me." 

- Ends

For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:

About Avacta Group plc - https://www.avacta.com

Avacta Group is developing novel cancer immunotherapies and powerful diagnostics based on its two proprietary platforms - Affimer^® biologics and pre|CISION^™ tumour targeted chemotherapies.

The Affimer platform is an alternative to antibodies derived from a small human protein. Despite their shortcomings, antibodies currently dominate markets, such as diagnostics and therapeutics, worth in excess of $100bn. Affimer technology has been designed to address many of these negative performance issues, principally: the time taken to generate new antibodies and the reliance on an animal's immune response; poor specificity in many cases; their large size, complexity and high cost of manufacture.

Avacta's pre|CISION targeted chemotherapy platform releases active chemotherapy in the tumour, which limits the systemic exposure that causes damage to healthy tissues, and thereby improves the overall safety and therapeutic potential of these powerful anti-cancer treatments.

The Group comprises two divisions: The therapeutics development activities are based in Cambridge, UK and the Group is generating near-term revenues from Affimer reagents for diagnostics, bioprocessing and research, through a separate diagnostics business unit based in Wetherby, UK.

Avacta's Diagnostics Division works with partners world-wide to develop bespoke Affimer reagents for third party products. The Group is also developing an in-house pipeline of Affimer-based diagnostic assays including the AffiDX^® SARS-CoV-2 Lateral Flow Rapid Antigen Test and AffiDX^® BAMS^™ SARS-CoV-2 Assay in partnership with Adeptrix Inc.

Avacta's Therapeutics Division is addressing a critical gap in current cancer treatment - the lack of a durable response to current immunotherapies experienced by most patients. By combining its two proprietary platforms the Group is building a wholly owned pipeline of novel cancer therapies deigned to be effective for all cancer patients. In 2021 Avacta will commence a phase 1 first-in-human, open label, dose-escalation and expansion study of AVA6000 Pro-doxorubicin, the Group's lead pre|CISION^™ prodrug, in patients with locally advanced or metastatic selected solid tumours.

Avacta has established drug development partnerships with pharma and biotech, including a research collaboration with ModernaTX,Inc. (formerly Moderna Therapeutics Inc.), a multi-target deal with LG Chem worth up to $400m, a joint venture in South Korea with Daewoong Pharmaceutical focused on cell and gene therapies incorporating Affimer immune-modulators, a partnership with ADC Therapeutics to develop Affimer-drug conjugates and a collaboration with Point Biopharma to develop radiopharmaceuticals based on the pre|CISION^™ platform. Avacta continues to actively seek to license its proprietary platforms in a range of therapeutic areas.

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