Avacta presents pre-clinical data for anti-cancer candidate

Life science company Avacta Group announced the presentation of pre-clinical data for its novel ‘preCISION’ proteasome inhibitor AVA3996 on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm made the presentation at the 2023 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting - one of the largest international cancer research meetings.

Proteasome inhibitors have proven to be effective anti-cancer drugs, but their use has been limited by severe, dose-limiting toxicities that prevent them from being used in a broader range of cancers, particularly solid tumours.

However, Avacta said it believed that its preCISION technology could significantly expand the use of proteasome inhibitors.

AVA3996 is the second of its preCISION chemotherapies, combining a proprietary proteasome inhibitor - AVA2727D - with the preCISION tumour-targeting chemistry.

The combination created the potential to reduce systemic toxicities, the company explained, making it possible to treat solid tumours with a proteasome inhibitor for the first time.

AVA3996 is currently in preclinical development, with the company aiming to submit an investigational new drug application in 2024.

The firm said the data presented at AACR showed that AVA3996's release of the active proteasome inhibitor, AVA2727D, was specific to the enzyme FAP, which is upregulated in most solid tumours, indicating the potential to target the proteasome inhibitor to tumour tissue.

In a head-to-head study, AVA2727D was found to kill cancer cells ex-vivo as effectively as bortezomib - one of the approved proteasome inhibitors on the market.

The data also demonstrated that AVA3996 was as effective as bortezomib in restricting tumour growth in three different in-vivo - mouse - cancer models, including melanoma, sarcoma, and colorectal cancer.

In the case of the melanoma model, AVA3996 was found to be as effective as trametinib - the standard of care for unresectable melanoma.

Notably, the significant toxicities associated with bortezomib observed in the in-vivo models were not observed in the case of AVA3996, suggesting that the systemic exposure to the drug had been reduced due to the tumour targeting of the preCISION chemistry.

“We are delighted with the progress being made in the pre-clinical development of AVA3996, the second drug candidate based on our preCISION platform,” said chief executive officer Dr Alastair Smith.

“The potential to apply a proteasome inhibitor to the treatment of solid tumours is very exciting and, as can be seen from our poster presented at the prestigious AACR meeting, the pre-clinical data we are generating is very encouraging in that regard.

“We are focused on accelerating AVA3996 through to investigational new drug filing as soon as possible so that it can follow AVA6000 into the clinic next year.”

At 1050 BST, shares in Avacta Group were up 1.16% at 140.62p.

Reporting by Josh White for Shareast.com.