LifeArc, an independent medical research charity,announces a £3.0m co-investment in British biotech Avvinity Therapeutics alongside the UK government’s Future Fund. Lead investor LifeArc leveraged £1.5m of seed funding provided to Avvinity to secure matched funding of £1.5m from the Future Fund.
The investment will help progress studies to validate first-in-class novel therapeutics as potential drug candidates for the treatment of solid tumours including gastric cancer,which is a historically intractable disease with limited treatment options.
Dr David Holbrook, LifeArc’s Head of Seed Funds, said:“We are delighted to be backing Avvinity Therapeutics and its great science with the added endorsement of Future Fund. Alphamers are an entirely novel way to target disease that represent an exciting new approach to amplifying host immunity, and we look forward to translating this exciting and novel innovation towards benefits for patients with difficult to treat cancers.”
Avvinity Therapeutics will focus on the development of novel immunotherapeutic molecules known as Alphamers,which harness a strong immune response to target and kill tumour cells. The proprietary Alphamer technology is a “plug-and-play”approach to enhance the performance of antibodies, or any other targeting moiety, so that multiple arms of the immune system are engaged specifically against cancer cells overexpressing the cell-surface targets of the antibodies. Avvinity’s most advanced project targets Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR), which is overexpressed in a significant number of solid tumours including gastric tumours, head and neck, colon and lung cancers. Avvinity anticipates that by engaging the immune system Alphamers will have a far greater impact on treating these diseases than existing EGFR targeting agents. Alphamers also show potential in treating haematological cancers.
Avvinity’s patent portfolio exemplifies the use of antibodies, antibody fragments, RNA/DNA Aptamers and small molecules as targeting domains. When conjugated to these targeting agents, Avvinity’s Linker technology drives immune destruction of tumours or diseased tissue with minimal impact on healthy tissue.
Dr Jon Moore, co-founder and Interim CEO of Avvinity Therapeutics said:“LifeArc has an excellent reputation in backing first-in-class therapeutics, and we look forward to working with its team of scientists to help progress Alphamers as important new immuno-oncology medicines.”