Avacta triggers second milestone payment in AffyXell venture

Life science company Avacta Group announced on Monday that a second milestone equity payment had been triggered, resulting in an increased shareholding for Avacta in AffyXell Therapeutics.

The AIM-traded firm said AffyXell is a joint venture between itself and Daewoong Pharmaceutical of South Korea, focussed on the development of next-generation cell therapies.

It put the milestone’s achievement down to Avacta's successful development and characterization of Affimer proteins against the second target of interest for AffyXell.

As a result, Avacta had filed a patent application for the associated intellectual property, thus meeting the conditions necessary to trigger the second milestone payment.

Avacta said its current shareholding in AffyXell stood at 19%, with its exact shareholding increase to be determined through a formal valuation of the joint venture, as was the case with the first milestone payment achieved in April last year.

“We are delighted that such rapid progress has been made with the second target in our joint venture in South Korea,” said chief executive officer Dr Alastair Smith.

“There is great potential for AffyXell's novel, engineered mesenchymal stem cell platform incorporating Avacta's Affimer technology to deliver significant improvements to the standard of care for patients with serious diseases.

“We continue to work closely with our colleagues at AffyXell and Daewoong to advance this cutting edge therapeutic platform.”

At 1233 BST, shares in Avacta Group were up 2.37% at 110.56p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.