Avacta triggers milestone in Daewoong joint venture

Clinical-stage oncology drug company Avacta announced on Wednesday that a milestone equity payment has been triggered, resulting in an increase in its shareholding in AffyXell Therapeutics.

AffyXell is a joint venture between Avacta and Daewoong Pharmaceutical in South Korea.

The AIM-traded firm said it had successfully developed and characterised ‘Affimer’ proteins against the first target for AffyXell, and had now transferred the related intellectual property into AffyXell, triggering an agreed milestone in the joint venture agreement.

In exchange for that, Avacta received an increase in its equity stake in AffyXell, which was diluted from its founding equity stake in February 2021 when AffyXell completed a series A financing of $7.3m from a group of venture funds.

Avacta's shareholding in the joint venture now stood at 22%.

“AffyXell is uniquely positioned to develop novel and powerful cell therapies through the combination of two world-class technologies - Avacta's Affimer platform and Daewoong's proprietary technology for generating 'off-the-shelf' allogeneic MSC therapies,” said chief executive officer Dr Alastair Smith.

“We are delighted that Affimer molecules have been successfully generated against the first target and that the intellectual property has been transferred to AffyXell, triggering this important milestone.

“We are working closely with our colleagues in AffyXell and Daewoong at this exciting stage in combining the two platforms to deliver cutting-edge therapies for patients.”

At 1339 BST, shares in Avacta Group were down 1.77% at 110.02p.