Avacta Group PLC Directorate Change (9405I)

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RNS Number : 9405I

Avacta Group PLC

18 August 2021

18 August 2021

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or "the Group" or "the Company")

Directorate Change

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a clinical stage oncology drug company and developer of powerful diagnostics based on its innovative Affimer(R) and pre|CISION(TM) platforms, announces the appointment of Dr Mark Goldberg as Non-executive Director to the Board with immediate effect.

Dr. Mark Goldberg is a medical oncologist and haematologist on the faculty of Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, a veteran biotech executive, and long-time American Cancer Society (ACS) and ACS Cancer Action Network (CAN) volunteer. Dr. Goldberg is the past-chair of the Eastern New England Area Board of the American Cancer Society and currently serves as a member of its national board of directors.

Dr. Goldberg currently serves on the boards of directors of ImmunoGen, Idera Pharmaceuticals, GlycoMimetics, Walden Biosciences, and Blueprint Medicines. Dr. Goldberg served on the board of directors of Audentes Therapeutics up to its acquisition by Astellas Pharma in 2020. Dr. Goldberg previously served on the executive management team of Synageva Biopharma from 2011-2014 and before that served in various management capacities of increasing responsibility at Genzyme Corporation from 1996-2011, most recently as senior vice president of clinical development.

Dr Mark Goldberg, commented:

"I find the Affimer(R) and pre|CISION(TM) platforms to be very innovative. I look forward to joining the Board and working with my new Board colleagues and the Avacta management team to develop novel therapies that will improve the lives of patients suffering from cancer."

Dr Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Avacta Group, commented:

"I am very pleased to welcome Mark to the Board. Mark is a vastly experienced biotech executive and oncologist and Avacta will benefit greatly from his future contributions to the strategy and vision for the therapeutic business."

Dr Eliot Forster, Chairman of Avacta Group, commented:

"I am delighted that Mark will be joining the Board of Avacta. Mark's wealth of experience and expertise will be invaluable as we progress our pipeline of proprietary Affimer(R) and pre|CISION(TM) platforms into clinical stage assets. "

-Ends -

Regulatory disclosure - The following information is disclosed in accordance with Rule 17 and paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

Dr. Mark Alan Goldberg, 67, holds no ordinary shares in the Company. Dr. Goldberg's current and previous directorships are as follows:

Current Directorships/Partnerships:

Immunogen Corporation

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Glycomimetics, Inc.

Blueprint Medicines Corporation

American Cancer Society, Inc.

Walden Biosciences Securities Corporation

113 ST Investments, LLC

Tanglewood Investments, LLC

GK Investments, LLC

GK Realty Investments, LLC

Directorships/Partnerships held in last 5 years:

aTyr Pharma, Inc.

Audentes Therapeutics, Inc.

Salzedo ST. Investments, LLC

Save for the disclosures above, there are no further disclosures to be made in accordance with Rule 17 and Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules.

For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:

 
 
   Avacta Group plc 
   Alastair Smith, Chief Executive                      Tel: [phone] 
   Officer                                                         www.avacta.com 
   Tony Gardiner, Chief Financial Officer 
   Michael Vinegrad, Group Communications 
   Director 
 
   Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Nomad                Tel: [phone] 
   and Broker)                                                     www.stifel.com 
   Nicholas Moore / Nick Adams / Fred 
   Walsh / Ben Maddison 
 
   FTI Consulting (Financial Media                       Tel: [phone] 
   and IR)                                            [e-mail] 
   Simon Conway / Stephanie Cuthbert 
 
   Zyme Communications (Trade and                             [phone] 
   Regional Media)                            [e-mail] 
   Lily Jeffery 
 

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(R) biologics and pre|CISION(TM) tumour targeted chemotherapies.

The Affimer(R) 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(TM) 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(R) reagents for third party products. The Group is also developing an in-house pipeline of Affimer-based diagnostic assays including the AffiDX(R) SARS-CoV-2 Lateral Flow Rapid Antigen Test and AffiDX(R) BAMS(TM) 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 a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, commencing a phase 1 first-in-human, open label, dose-escalation and expansion study of AVA6000 Pro-doxorubicin, the Group's lead pre|CISION(TM) 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(TM) platform. Avacta continues to actively seek to license its proprietary platforms in a range of therapeutic areas.

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August 18, 2021 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)