Avacta Group plc (LON:AVCT) CEO Alastair Smith joins DirectorsTalk to discuss its latest positive update on its rapid antigen test and affimer blocking reagent. Alastair provides more details around the antigen test development with Cytiva, the next steps in the development plan and explains how some of the Affimer reagents that they have developed which block the interaction between the virus spike protein and a human cell receptor have now been shown to prevent infection of human cells in a model coronavirus system.
Avacta Group is developing novel cancer immunotherapies combining its two proprietary platforms – Affimer® biotherapeutics and pre|CISION™ tumour targeted chemotherapy. With this approach, the Company aims to address the lack of a durable response to current immunotherapies experienced by most patients. The Company’s therapeutics development activities are based in Cambridge, UK.
The Affimer platform is an alternative to antibodies derived from a small human protein. Despite their shortcomings, antibodies currently dominate markets worth in excess of $100bn. Affimer technology has been designed to address many of these negative performance issues, principally: the time taken, and the reliance on an animal’s immune response, to generate new antibodies; poor specificity in many cases; large size and cost.
