27 April 2023

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Company" and, together with its subsidiary undertakings, the "Group")

First Patient Dosed in the US in Avacta's AVA6000 Phase 1 Clinical Study

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a life sciences company developing innovative, targeted oncology drugs and powerful diagnostics, announces that the first patient has been dosed in the US under its Investigational New Drug (IND) Application in Avacta's phase 1 multi-centre trial evaluating the safety and tolerability of AVA6000, a novel tumour targeted form of doxorubicin and Avacta's first therapeutic product based on its proprietary pre|CISION™ technology.

The first patient in the US has been dosed in the dose-escalation study in patients with locally advanced or metastatic selected solid tumours, known to be FAP-positive, at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

For more information visit www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04969835).

Dr Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Avacta Group plc, commented:

"The US trial sites in New York and Seattle will play a key role, along with other sites in the UK and US, in this multi-centre trial both in the dose escalation phase and in the dose expansion phase which we expect to begin in the second half of the year.

"Dosing the first patient in the US is a key milestone and reflects the continuing excellent progress in the ALS-6000-101 clinical trial and the Therapeutics Division as a whole."

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For further information from Avacta Group plc, please contact:

About Avacta Group plc - www.avacta.com

Avacta Group plc is a life sciences company working to improve people's health and well-being through innovative oncology drugs and powerful diagnostics. Operating through two divisions, Diagnostics and Therapeutics, the Group's mission is to provide professionals and consumers with solutions that improve healthcare, fitness and well-being.

Avacta's Therapeutics Division, a clinical stage oncology drug innovator, is building a wholly owned pipeline of novel Affimer^® immunotherapies and pre|CISION™ tumour targeted chemotherapies. This approach is designed to address the lack of a durable response to current cancer immunotherapies experienced by most patients and reduce the severe systemic toxicities caused by chemotherapies. There are five programmes in the pipeline as well as several global research collaborations and licensing partnerships. Avacta's lead programme, AVA6000, is a pre|CISION™ tumour-targeted form of the established chemotherapy doxorubicin. AVA6000 is in Phase I clinical trials in patients with locally advanced or metastatic selected solid tumours.

The Affimer^® platform is an alternative to antibodies that has been designed to address many of the drawbacks of antibodies which, despite their shortcomings, currently dominate the immuno-diagnostics and immuno-therapeutics markets.

The pre|CISION™ tumour targeting platform can be used to modify a chemotherapy in order to selectively release the active drug in tumour tissue thereby reducing the systemic exposure that causes damage to healthy tissues. pre|CISION™ modified chemotherapies are designed to reduce the side effects and improve the overall safety and therapeutic potential of these powerful anti-cancer treatments.

Avacta's Diagnostics Division develops and supplies a broad range of in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) solutions. The Division is growing rapidly through an M&A strategy to deliver a global scale IVD business providing market leading solutions for healthcare professionals and consumers to inform treatment and monitor health and well-being. In October 2022, Avacta acquired Launch Diagnostics which serves the hospital pathology laboratory market in the UK and Europe. Avacta Diagnostic's research and development centre in Wetherby, UK uses its proprietary Affimer^® platform to differentiate immunodiagnostic products to provide marketing leading performance.

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