Aptamer Group plc

("Aptamer", the "Company" or the "Group")

Aptamer Group Announces New Contracts Worth £235,000 for Optimer Development

-    Contract with top five pharma partner for IHC reagents

-   Contract to develop Optimer for life science kits with royalty-bearing licence upon commercialisation

Aptamer Group plc (AIM: APTA), the developer of novel Optimer^® binders to enable innovation in the life sciences industry, is pleased to announce the signing of two significant contracts for the development of Optimer binders, with a combined total value of up to £235,000.

The first contract, valued at up to £175,000, is with a top five pharmaceutical company. As part of this contract, Aptamer will develop Optimer binders for use in immunohistochemistry (IHC) applications. There is potential for the Optimer binders to utilise the Company's recently patented Optimer-Fc platform to deliver advanced IHC reagents for improved performance and use in automated IHC workflows. Following development, the binders could be integrated into companion diagnostics or as critical reagents to support the top five partner's drug development pipeline, resulting in downstream royalties and/or licencing revenues for Aptamer. This agreement represents the sixth contract with this pharmaceutical partner for Optimer development across multiple applications, highlighting its confidence in the Optimer platform.

The second contract, valued at up to £60,000, is with a global provider of specialty enzymes used widely throughout the life sciences sector, in a $9.9bn market, growing at 8.6% CAGR. Aptamer will develop Optimer binders as novel reagents to be incorporated into the partner's life science and diagnostic assay kits. Through a non-exclusive licence for the developed Optimer, Aptamer Group will earn milestone payments upon successful commercialisation and downstream high single digit royalties from the gross sales of all kits containing the developed Optimer. Sales could commence as early as 2025.

Dr Arron Tolley, Chief Technical Officer of Aptamer Group, said: "The repeat business from another of our top-five pharma partner validates the power of the Optimer platform to solve intractable problems associated with traditional ligands like antibodies in the area of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and supports our new business and patenting strategy. These smaller royalty bearing agreements to develop Optimer binders aligns with our business model to develop a diversified pipeline of technologies to deliver licence agreements across the life science sector. Unfortunately, due to confidentiality we cannot disclose the name of the partner or any other terms of the deal.

Over the past year, the new management team has successfully rebuilt the sales pipeline, and refocused the business to its pre-IPO model which continues to convert to signed deals - with opportunities to generate passive income through licensing and royalty-based deals. I look forward to updating the market on continuing commercial progress and on the continued development of our key assets in delivery vehicles for the Liver Fibrosis, binders for cosmetic applications with Unilever and our ongoing partnership with Neuro-Bio developing a diagnostic for Alzheimer's." 

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About Aptamer Group plc 

Aptamer Group develops custom affinity binders through its proprietary Optimer^® platform to enable new approaches in therapeutics, diagnostics, and research applications. The Company strives to deliver transformational solutions that meet the needs of life science researchers and developers. 

Optimer binders are oligonucleotide affinity ligands that can function as an antibody alternative. The global affinity ligand market is currently worth over $170 billion.  

Aptamer has successfully delivered projects for a range of global pharma companies, diagnostic development companies, and research institutes, covering multiple application areas with the objective of establishing royalty-bearing licenses.