10 October 2024
Avacta Group
plc
("Avacta"
or "the Group" or "the Company")
Avacta to Unveil Pipeline
Expansion and Novel, Next-Generational Targeted Cancer Therapy
Programs at 2024 EORTC-NCI-AACR
Symposium
LONDON, UK, 10 OCT 2024, Avacta
Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a life sciences company developing
innovative, targeted cancer treatments, today announced that the
Company will present new preclinical data on two breakthroughs in
the pre|CISION™ platform in poster sessions
at the 2024 EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer
Therapeutics in Barcelona, Spain from 23-25
October 2024. Together, the presentations
advance the utility of our pre|CISION™ drug
delivery platform technology,
which delivers highly potent warheads directly to
the tumor microenvironment while minimizing exposure in normal
tissues, thus allowing dosing to be optimized to deliver the best
outcomes for patients.
The first advance in the
pre|CISION™ platform is the design and preclinical analysis of the
Company's newest development candidate, AVA6103, a novel, potent
peptide drug conjugate (PDC) that FAP-enables the most potent
Topoisomerase I inhibitor in clinical testing, via the pre|CISION™
technology with tumor-specific delivery of the warhead to induce
DNA damage and drive cancer cell death. AVA6103 is a Generation
Two pre|CISION™ PDC
in the Avacta pipeline.
The second advance in the
pre|CISION™ platform is the first description of a novel class of
engineered biotherapeutics, called
Affirmer® Drug Conjugates, that are dual-targeting and
have the potential to offer a delivery mechanism with greater
specificity than the PDC, thus potentially unlocking the patient
populations with low expression of FAP in the tumor. This program
is a Generation Three pre|CISION™ medicine and utilizes the same release
mechanism in the pre|CISION™ platform. Based on this, the Affimer drug conjugates have the
potential to not only increase the specificity of delivery but to
also minimize systemic exposure to the warhead.
AVA6103: FAP-enabled PDC Targeting Topoisomerase I to the
Tumor Microenvironment
Avacta discovered AVA6103 using its
pre|CISION™ platform technology and structure-based drug design.
AVA6103 incorporates a dipeptide that is specifically cleaved by
Fibroblast Activation Protein α (FAP), which is overexpressed on
the surface of cancer associated fibroblasts. AVA6103 consists of a
highly potent Topoisomerase I warhead that is covalently linked to
a dipeptide containing a cleaving sequence susceptible to
hydrolysis by FAP, but which is resistant to hydrolysis by
mammalian peptidases. The high selectivity of the
pre|CISION™ substrate to FAP results in release of the
topoisomerase inhibitor warhead only in the tumor microenvironment,
which could potentially reduce systemic exposure and enable greater
tolerability. Avacta will present in vivo data that demonstrates the
ability to target and accumulate the active warhead in the tumor
microenvironment, resulting in tumor growth inhibition with
AVA6103.
Details of the poster are as
follows:
·
Abstract
Title: The novel peptide drug
conjugate AVA6103 is a FAP-enabled pre|CISION™ medicine which
targets Topoisomerase I to the tumor microenvironment via FAP
cleavage
·
Session
Title: Antibody Drug Conjugate
Therapeutics
·
Session
Date: October 24, 2024
Affirmer® Drug Conjugates: New Class of Engineered
Biotherapeutics Targeting FAP to Deliver Powerful
Warheads to the
Tumor Microenvironment
Avacta has created Affimer® Drug
Conjugates (AFFDCs) as a novel class of engineering biotherapeutics that
incorporate a topoisomerase inhibitor for delivery specifically in
the tumor microenvironment. AFFDCs
are designed with several key advantages over
monoclonal antibodies, including significant smaller size, tumor
penetration, tunable binding affinity to specific cancer targets
and the ability to be dimerized. Avacta will present data
supporting that exposure of tumor cell line or fibroblast cell
co-cultures to AFFDCs results in drug cleavage, release of the
warhead and tumor cell kill as a bystander function.
Details of the poster presentations
are as follows:
·
Abstract
Title: Affimer® Drug
Conjugates targeting Fibroblast Activation Protein
α deliver highly
toxic warheads to the tumor microenvironment by leveraging the
pre|CISION™ release mechanism
·
Session
Title: Antibody Drug Conjugate
Therapeutics
·
Session Date and
Time: October 24, 2024
-Ends-
For further information from
Avacta Group plc, please contact:
About Avacta Group plc - https://avacta.com/
Avacta Group is a UK-based
life sciences company focused on improving healthcare outcomes
through targeted cancer treatments and diagnostics.
Avacta Therapeutics: a clinical
stage oncology biotech division that is harnessing the proprietary
pre|CISION platform technology to develop novel, highly targeted
cancer drugs.
The pre|CISION™ platform is a highly
specific substrate for fibroblast activation protein (FAP) which is
upregulated in most solid tumors compared with healthy tissues. The
pre|CISION™ platform harnesses this tumor specific protease to
cleave pre|CISION™ peptide drug conjugates and pre|CISION™
antibody/Affimer® drug conjugates in the tumor
microenvironment, thus releasing active payload in the tumor and
reducing systemic exposure and toxicity, allowing dosing to be
optimized to deliver the best outcomes for patients.
The lead pre|CISION™ program
AVA6000, a peptide drug conjugate form of doxorubicin, is in Phase
1 studies. It has shown an improvement in safety and tolerability
in clinical trials to date compared with standard doxorubicin and
preliminary signs of clinical activity in multiple
patients.
Avacta Diagnostics focuses on
supporting healthcare professionals and broadening access to
diagnostics.
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