Avacta Group PLC CAR-T Cell Therapy Research Collaboration in US (0361O)
November 02 2016 - 3:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMAVCT
RNS Number : 0361O
Avacta Group PLC
02 November 2016
02 November 2016
Avacta Group plc
("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")
Avacta announces CAR-T cell therapy research collaboration with
major US cancer centre
-- CAR-T cell therapy is a major new area of cancer therapy that
has attracted $billions of investment in the past few years
-- Affimer technology will potentially provide significant
advantages over antibody fragment technology currently used in
CAR-T cell modification
-- Proof-of-concept study with major US cancer centre has the
potential to open up highly valuable licensing and partnering
opportunities
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer(R)
biotherapeutics and research reagents, today announces a research
collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) to
evaluate the use of Avacta's Affimer technology in novel CAR-T
cell-based immunotherapy.
CAR-T immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment in which the
patient's own immune system T cells are modified to give them
greater potency with which to attack cancer cells (see Notes).
Treatments using these engineered immune cells have generated
promising responses in patients with advanced cancers and CAR-T
immunotherapy has become an intense area of research, clinical
development and investment.
The simple structure and biophysical properties of Affimers
potentially provide significant advantages over antibody fragment
technology currently used in CAR-T cell modification and the
collaboration announced today is intended to demonstrate a new
class of CAR-T cell therapy that incorporate Affimer molecules.
The collaboration will be led by Renier J. Brentjens, MD, PhD,
Director of Cellular Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center in New York.
As part of the collaboration Avacta will develop Affimer
molecules that bind different regions of CD19, a surface protein
specific to B-cells involved in lymphomas. Dr Brentjens' team will
construct CAR-T cells incorporating these Affimer molecules and
test their anti-tumour function in vitro and in in vivo animal
efficacy models.
Under the terms of the agreement the ownership of the results
generated directly as part of this collaboration will be shared
between Avacta and MSK.
Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive commented: "CAR-T
cell therapy is an emerging and very exciting area of
immuno-oncology which holds enormous clinical potential. We are
delighted to be working with a world-leading team in the field to
demonstrate the benefits that Affimer technology could bring to
CAR-T therapy. The generation of positive data in these validated
models of disease has the potential to open up highly valuable
licensing and partnering opportunities for Avacta in this therapy
area which has attracted so much attention in the past couple of
years."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For further information from Avacta Group plc, please
contact:
Avacta Group plc Tel: +44 (0) 844 414 0452
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive www.avacta.com
Officer
Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial
Officer
finnCap Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 0500
Geoff Nash / Giles Rolls www.finncap.com
- Nominated Adviser
Tim Redfern / Alice Lane
- Corporate Broking Tel: +44 (0) 203 705 9318
Tel: +44 (0) 203 705 9217
WG Partners www.wgpartners.co.uk
David Wilson
Nigel Barnes
Claes Spang
Zyme Communications (Trade Tel: +44 (0)7787 502 947
and Regional Media) katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com
Katie Odgaard
Tel: +44 (0) 203 727 1000
FTI Consulting (Financial avacta@fticonsulting.com
Media and IR)
Simon Conway / Natalie Garland-Collins
About CAR-T Immuno-therapy
Chimeric antigen receptor- or CAR-T cell therapy involves
modifying a patient's own immune cells (T cells) to program them to
target and destroy cancer cells. This is achieved by removing a
patient's T cells (white blood cells whose role is to destroy
cellular abnormalities and infection) and modifying them so that
they present a protein on their surface that targets malignant
cells and so that they are activated it in order to kill the cancer
cell. The T cells are modified by adding artificial T cell receptor
proteins (also known as chimeric antigen receptors) on to the
surface of the T cell. The T cells, which can be made to target
specifically the patient's own particular cancer, are then
reintroduced into the patient to treat the cancer.
CAR-T cell therapy has been developed over many years and after
multiple generations of CAR-T technology has attracted significant
investment and large pharma interest in the last few years. The
first CAR-T cells were developed at the Weizmann Institute of
Science in Israel in the late 1980s by chemist and immunologist
Zelig Eshhar when a tumour's ability to escape immune recognition
by silencing part of the immune response was beginning to be
understood.
Over the past few years, the industry has been a hive of
activity, with several companies doing deals, such as Juno, Kite,
Bellicum, Novartis, Pfizer, Amgen, Celgene and others, reflecting
the perceived financial potential of these therapies as well as the
priority being given to these therapies by the regulators for
filling unmet medical needs.
About Avacta Group plc (www.avacta.com)
Avacta's principal focus is on its proprietary Affimer(R)
technology which is a novel engineered alternative to antibodies
that has wide application in Life Sciences for diagnostics,
therapeutics and general research and development.
Antibodies dominate markets worth in excess of $50bn despite
their shortcomings. Affimer technology has been designed to address
many of these negative performance issues, principally; the time
taken to generate new antibodies, the reliance on an animal's
immune response, poor specificity in many cases, and batch to batch
variability. Affimer technology is based on a small protein that
can be quickly generated to bind with high specificity and affinity
to a wide range of protein targets.
Avacta has a pre-clinical biotech development programme with an
in-house focus on immuno-oncology and bleeding disorders as well as
partnered development programmes. Avacta is commercialising
non-therapeutic Affimer reagents through licensing to developers of
life sciences research tools and diagnostics.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
RESFSWFMFFMSESF
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 02, 2016 03:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
Avacta (LSE:AVCT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Avacta (LSE:AVCT)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024