CAR-T Cell Therapy Research Collaboration in US
02 November 2016
Avacta Group plc
(“Avacta” or “the Group” or “the Company”)
Avacta announces CAR-T cell therapy research collaboration with major US cancer centre
·      CAR-T cell therapy is a major fresh area of cancer therapy that has attracted $billions of investment in the past few years
·      Affimer technology will potentially provide significant advantages over antibody fragment technology presently used in CAR-T cell modification
·      Proof-of-concept explore with major US cancer centre has the potential to open up very valuable licensing and partnering opportunities
Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer ® biotherapeutics and research reagents, today announces a research collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) to evaluate the use of Avacta’s Affimer technology in novel CAR-T cell-based immunotherapy.  
CAR-T immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment in which the patient’s own immune system T cells are modified to give them greater potency with which to attack cancer cells (see Notes). Treatments using these engineered immune cells have generated promising responses in patients with advanced cancers and CAR-T immunotherapy has become an intense area of research, clinical development and investment. 
The ordinary structure and biophysical properties of Affimers potentially provide significant advantages over antibody fragment technology presently used in CAR-T cell modification and the collaboration announced today is intended to demonstrate a fresh class of CAR-T cell therapy that incorporate Affimer molecules.
The collaboration will be led by Renier J. Brentjens, MD, PhD, Director of Cellular Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Fresh York.
As part of the collaboration Avacta will develop Affimer molecules that tie different regions of CD19, a surface protein specific to B-cells involved in lymphomas. Dr Brentjens’ team will construct CAR-T cells incorporating these Affimer molecules and test their anti-tumour function in vitro and in in vivo animal efficacy models.
Under the terms of the agreement the ownership of the results generated directly as part of this collaboration will be collective inbetween Avacta and MSK.
Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive commented:   “CAR-T cell therapy is an emerging and very titillating area of immuno-oncology which holds enormous clinical potential. We are delighted to be working with a world-leading team in the field to demonstrate the benefits that Affimer technology could bring to CAR-T therapy.  The generation of positive data in these validated models of disease has the potential to open up very valuable licensing and partnering opportunities for Avacta in this therapy area which has attracted so much attention in the past duo of years.”
Notes to Editors
For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:
Avacta Group plc
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About CAR-T Immuno-therapy
Chimeric antigen receptor- or CAR-T cell therapy involves modifying a patient’s own immune cells (T cells) to program them to target and demolish cancer cells. This is achieved by removing a patient’s T cells (white blood cells whose role is to ruin cellular abnormalities and infection) and modifying them so that they present a protein on their surface that targets malignant cells and so that they are activated it in order to kill the cancer cell. The T cells are modified by adding artificial T cell receptor proteins (also known as chimeric antigen receptors) on to the surface of the T cell. The T cells, which can be made to target specifically the patient’s own particular cancer, are then reintroduced into the patient to treat the cancer.
CAR-T cell therapy has been developed over many years and after numerous generations of CAR-T technology has attracted significant investment and large pharma interest in the last few years. The very first CAR-T cells were developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel in the late 1980s by chemist and immunologist Zelig Eshhar when a tumour’s capability to escape immune recognition by muffling part of the immune response was beginning to be understood.
Over the past few years, the industry has been a hive of activity, with several companies doing deals, such as Juno, Kite, Bellicum, Novartis, Pfizer, Amgen, Celgene and others, reflecting the perceived financial potential of these therapies as well as the priority being given to these therapies by the regulators for packing unmet medical needs.
About Avacta Group plc (www.avacta.com)
Avacta’s principal concentrate is on its proprietary Affimer ® technology which is a novel engineered alternative to antibodies that has broad application in Life Sciences for diagnostics, therapeutics and general research and development.
Antibodies predominate markets worth in excess of $50bn despite their shortcomings. Affimer technology has been designed to address many of these negative spectacle issues, principally; the time taken to generate fresh antibodies, the reliance on an animal’s immune response, poor specificity in many cases, and batch to batch variability. Affimer technology is based on a puny protein that can be quickly generated to tie with high specificity and affinity to a broad range of protein targets.
Avacta has a pre-clinical biotech development programme with an in-house concentrate on immuno-oncology and bleeding disorders as well as partnered development programmes. Avacta is commercialising non-therapeutic Affimer reagents through licensing to developers of life sciences research instruments and diagnostics.