Avacta secures commercial partnership

Wetherby-based Avacta makes devices to speed up and reduce the cost of drug development. The company is probably best known for developing Affimers, an engineered alternative to anti-bodies.

Avacta has entered into a commercial agreement with Swedish firm Agrisera AB, to develop Affimer based purification systems.

Dr Alastair Smith, Avacta’s chief executive, said: “Agrisera are a well respected, high quality provider of research tools for plant sciences research and I am delighted that we will be working with them to develop the first Affimer based product for the agri-bio market. This market, in general, is not as well served as the human life sciences market by the large antibody suppliers, so there is a great opportunity for Avacta to establish Affimers in a growing market where there are many gaps, as well as pushing forward with our plans to address the human life sciences market.”

Analysts from Panmure Gordon & Co said: “We expect this to be a break-out year for Avacta. With the Affimer platform maturing to commercial milestones, and the company’s channel expanding, we expect this to start contributing meaningfully in the next few months.