Avacta signs new cancer therapy deal

Radiopharmaceutical therapy is now seen as a safe and effective approach for treating many types of cancer.

Wetherby-based Avacta said the radiopharmaceutical market is expected to grow to £11bn by 2025 and there is a substantial opportunity to grow much faster if safety and tolerability of these effective treatments can be improved.

Point Biopharma is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing radioligands as precision medicines for the treatment of cancer. Radioligands work like cancer-seeking missiles, which seek out and bind to tumor cells. The radioactive molecule destroys the tumor cells’ DNA.

Alastair Smith, chief executive of Avacta Group, said: “I am very pleased to have established this partnership with Point that allows Avacta to exploit its pre|CISION platform in a therapeutic area outside of our in-house focus on chemotherapy prodrugs.

"The clinical and commercial rationale for our pre|CISION prodrug platform is to improve the safety and efficacy of many existing drugs, as well as generating a pipeline of new and novel cancer therapies. In oncology, we believe that this approach will result in better response rates for monotherapies, and a greater safety margin, to enable their use with a larger patient population and as part of combination therapies."

Under the terms of the agreement, Avacta will receive an upfront fee and development milestones for the first radiopharmaceutical prodrug totalling £7m.

Avacta will also receive milestone payments for subsequent radiopharmaceutical prodrugs of up to £6m each, a royalty on sales of FAP-activated radiopharmaceuticals by Point and a percentage of any sublicensing income received by Point.