Avacta 'delighted' at license agreement with longtime collaborator

Avacta Group agreed a commercial license with New England Biolabs (NEB) to commercialise a science and research assay project using its Affimer technology on Wednesday.

The two outfits have previously worked together, finding that AIM traded Avacta’s Affimers can be used to inhibit NEB’s proprietary enzymes and modulate their activity at specific temperature junctures, thus avoiding negative effects on overall assay performance.

Consequently, the two companies have agreed to commercialise a combined product, with sales to occur as soon as next year.

Alastair Smith, chief executive of Avacta, said: "We are delighted that the collaboration with New England Biolabs, a highly respected, globally recognized leader in the life sciences reagents market, has resulted in this commercial agreement to incorporate the Affimer technology into one of their products."

No financial details of the agreement have been disclosed by Avacta will receive a royalty on product sales and the two companies will continue to work on further combined product developments.

"This is another important milestone for Avacta, because it further validates the Affimer technology and our licensing business model. We have built a pipeline of evaluations and collaborations, such as this one with New England Biolabs, to deliver numerous license agreements to commercialise Affimer-based products," said Smith.

Avacta’s shares were up 1.96% at 24.98p at 1634 BST.