Avacta doses first patient in US tumour treatment trial

Oncology and diagnostics developer Avacta announced the dosing of the first patient in the United States under its investigational new drug (IND) application on Thursday - a milestone for its first therapeutic product ‘AVA6000’, based on its proprietary ‘preCISION’ technology.

The AIM-traded company’s phase one multi-centre trial would evaluate the safety and tolerability of AVA6000 - a novel tumour-targeted form of doxorubicin.

It said the study was being conducted in patients with locally-advanced or metastatic selected solid tumours that were known to be FAP-positive.

The patient was dosed at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where the dose-escalation study was taking place.

Avacta’s trial was aiming to assess the safety and tolerability of AVA6000, as well as its pharmacokinetics and preliminary anti-tumour activity.

“The US trial sites in New York and Seattle will play a key role, along with other sites in the UK and US, in this multi-centre trial both in the dose escalation phase and in the dose expansion phase which we expect to begin in the second half of the year,” said chief executive officer Dr Alastair Smith.

“Dosing the first patient in the US is a key milestone and reflects the continuing excellent progress in the ALS-6000-101 clinical trial, and the therapeutics division as a whole.”

At 1150 BST, shares in Avacta Group were up 0.42% at 126.33p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.