Under the terms of the extended collaboration, Pall will gain exclusive marketing and distribution rights to Optim, in a number of territories throughout the Pacific Rim including South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Singapore, home to Pall’s ‘Centre of Excellence’, will also act as a central hub for Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Optim is an innovative technology that provides biopharmaceutical developers with information about the viability of their candidate drug molecules and formulations for R&D purposes and to optimise manufacturing. Optim can provide this data very early in the drug development process thereby avoiding later stage costly product failures.

The biopharma market for South East Asia is set for growth, with Singapore as a particular hotspot. Several leading global pharmaceutical companies have recently announced significant investments to set up major biologics facilities in the region. The prospects for the South Korean bio-industry also look very promising due to strong government support and investments by international and regional businesses.

Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta Group commented: “We are delighted to expand our collaboration with Pall further and to benefit from their expertise and resources in the South East Asian market. We are very pleased with the progress that Pall are making with Optim sales and marketing in North America and expect to see the same sort of progress in this new territory. The strengthening of our commercial partnership with Pall through the development of a joint analytical services offering, that was recently announced, and potential to develop new products together is very important to Avacta and we anticipate that this will provide a strong platform for growth in this area of the Group’s activities.”

Ken Frank Senior Vice President of Pall Corporation and President of Pall’s Biopharmaceutical Division commented: “The extension of our collaboration with Avacta in South East Asia complements our investments in this area and significantly furthers our capability to provide high value, differentiated solutions to the developers and manufacturers of biomolecules for global healthcare needs.”

Trading update
The Company is pleased to announce that trading is in line with expectations. Underlying revenues have grown and operating losses have been reduced significantly; both are in line with market forecasts.

Avacta Analytical
Avacta Analytical’s commercial partnerships are progressing well. The Company now has commercial agreements in place, to sell Optim, with:

• Pall Corporation in North America
• Isogen Life Sciences in mainland Europe
• DKSH in Japan
• Cold Spring Biotech in China, Honk Kong and Taiwan

The Company has exceeded market expectations for sales of its Optim protein analysis system with 14 systems ordered during the year. The Company already has orders for the new financial year and an encouraging pipeline of high quality sales leads in place. Management hopes that these partnerships will lead to a growth in sales going forward.

The Company has additionally put an agreement in place with Pall Corporation to market and provide joint analytical services to be aimed at reducing drug development risk by giving greater insight into the effects of their manufacturing processes on the stability and structure of the products.

Avacta Animal Health
The previously announced issues with the manufacture and injection moulding of the AX-1 disposable cartridges that have delayed product roll-out are now resolved. The Company is now building stock of the new cartridges and AX-1 units and will be supplying the AX-1 point-of-care diagnostic system to customers later in 2011.

Avacta is delighted to announce two new appointments at Avacta Animal Health. Ged Holmes has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Ged has a strong track record in commercialising new technologies in a diverse range of markets and has a proven track record of developing growth companies. He will be tasked with effective roll-out and commercialisation of AX-1.

Avacta Animal Health is also delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Andy Peters as consultant to the Company. Andy is currently Managing Director of Arpexas Limited, a consultancy company providing support to the animal health sector in new product development. He is also a part time consultant to AspenBio Pharma Inc. and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines. Previous roles include Head of European Vaccine R&D, Pfizer Animal Health. Andy will provide important clinical advice and market knowledge to assist in prioritising the development of new tests for the AX-1 beyond the initial panels identified by the company.

Evaluating rational strategies for the formulation development of protein biotherapeutics

www.marcusevans.com

Avacta presentation by Dr. Simon Webster: New proteins, new problems: Analytical clues to the stability of therapeutic proteins outside the lab

Avacta presentation by Dr. Simon Webster: Tm and beyond! Analytical measurements to predict aggregation during manufacture and long term storage of therapeutic proteins.

www.coebp.ls.manchester.ac.uk

www.ibclifesciences.com