Group News
Optim Commercial Success
Sep 28, 2009Avacta announces commercial success for its recently launched flagship product, Optim.
Avacta Group plc
Commercialisation of flagship technology - Optim
Reducing risk and costs for biopharmaceutical developers
Avacta Group plc (“Avacta” or the “Company”), the company providing innovative,
high value technologies and services to the pharmaceutical and diagnostics
markets, is pleased to announce the first order from a global biopharmaceutical
developer for its recently launched flagship product Optim, an analytical
technology that is designed to reduce risk in biopharmaceutical development and
help drug companies bring optimised products to market quicker and at lower
cost.
The Directors believe that this is a significant and pivotal step for the
Company as it provides validation for its flagship product and a clear
demonstration of market demand.
Optim fills a significant gap in the market providing detailed analysis using
only very small sample volumes. For the first time this enables drug developers
to gain vital information about product performance in the early stages of
product development, when very limited quantities of material are available,
helping to reduce the risk of later stage failure.
An Optim system can cost up to £100k. However, since Optim uses minute amounts
of sample and is fully automated, it can deliver results in a fraction of the
time and at a fraction of the cost of other methods and can therefore yield a
return on investment for customers in only a few months.
Additionally Optim has several hardware/software add-ons and consumables
currently being developed in response to other clearly identified market needs.
These add-ons will, when integrated with Optim, build up a comprehensive and
unique biophysical analysis system for biopharmaceutical drug developers. The
Company is committed to bring these additional products to market as quickly as
possible.
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive, Avacta
Group, commented:
“Optim is designed to revolutionise
the way in which biological drugs are developed. It will make a major
contribution to optimizing product performance and reducing the risk and cost
of drug development, particularly when applied in the early stages of the drug
development process when it could identify problems that cause expensive later
stage product failure. Optim will help drug developers bring better products to
market quicker and more cheaply, which should result in a reduction in the cost
of these new drugs to patients.
“I am delighted to announce to the market that we have converted the first
order from a strong pipeline and that the very positive response we have
received from our discussions with potential customers gives us confidence in
future sales levels.
“We will continue to work hard towards building a strong, profitable Group
focused on providing high value products and services to support businesses in
the Life Sciences sector through commercialization of our own technology and
potentially through further acquisitions.”
28 Sept 2009
Enquiries:
Avacta Group plc Tel: 0844 414 0452
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer
www.avacta.com
Haggie Financial LLP Tel: 020 7417 8989
Kathy Boate Kathy.boate@haggie.co.uk
Nominated Adviser: Daniel Stewart & Company Plc Tel: 020
7776 6550
Simon Leathers
Novum Securities Limited Tel: 020 7399 9400
Henry Turcan
Notes to Editors:
About Avacta
Avacta was spun-out from the University of Leeds in 2004 by its current
management team as a biophysics company, with the aim of combining the
disciplines of physics and biology to develop innovative technologies and
expert technical services to address unmet needs in the biopharmaceutical and
healthcare sectors. Avacta has a core bio-analytical technology development
programme addressing the needs of the biopharmaceutical sector to fully
characterise their new products at the earliest stage in their development to
reduce the risk of late stage failure. High end analytical instruments and
leading edge contract research services are being provided to the
biopharmaceutical and healthcare/personal-care materials sectors through the
Group’s biotech support division, Avacta Analytical. High value solutions for
rapid, point of care diagnostics based on these core bio-analytical technologies,
with a near term focus on veterinary diagnostics, are being delivered through
Avacta Animal Health. Longer term these technologies will be transferred into
the human clinical diagnostics market. Avacta listed on AIM in August 2006.