Avacta hails "encouraging" clinical data from cancer-targeting study

Oncology drugs group Avacta has announced positive results from its lead pre|CISION™ programme, AVA6000, which it says has the potential to be "truly remarkable".

AVA6000 is a form of chemotherapy that targets only cancer cells, reducing the systemic exposure and improving the safety of the therapy. The hope is that the targeting will allow healthcare specialists to administer more potent cytotoxic drugs to fight cancer than have previously been used.

Pre-clinical, clinical and pharmacokinetic data from the Phase 1a dose escalation study showed that AVA6000 significantly improved the safety and tolerability of chemotherapy treatment doxorubicin. Avacta said data also showed "encouraging" preliminary clinical signs of anti-tumour activity.

The next steps with AVA6000 involve optimising the patient population, dose and schedule in order to increase efficacy and tolerability of doxorubicin treatment via pre|CISION™ targeting, the company said. It is now screening patients in the US for selection.

"Targeting potent therapies to the tumour, while limiting the systemic toxicity that often characterises these therapies, is one of the holy grails of cancer drug development," said Avacta's chief executive Alastair Smith.

"The potential of the pre|CISION™ platform to change the way in which potent cytotoxic drugs are delivered, improving cancer patients' quality of life and treatment outcomes, is truly remarkable."

Despite the positive news, the stock was down 5.3% at 127.89p by 0816 GMT.