LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Avacta Group announced on Monday that it has raised £16m through an oversubscribed equity placing to accelerate development of its oncology pipeline, as new clinical data presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) demonstrated strong efficacy and safety for its lead program, faridoxorubicin (AVA6000).
The AIM-traded biopharmaceutical group said the placing of 25.4 million new shares at 63p each would extend its cash runway into the second half of 2026.

Proceeds would support the ongoing phase 1b trial of faridoxorubicin and the planned Phase 1a trial of FAP-EXd (AVA6103), while also advancing the company's Dual Payload Technology program (AVA6207).

Completion of the fundraising also satisfied conditions tied to amendments of Avacta's convertible bond, including deferrals of certain repayments until October 2027 and a reset of the bond's conversion price to 75p.

Chief executive Christina Coughlin said the decision to raise funds would allow Avacta to retain full ownership of its 'preCISION' platform programs and strengthen its financial position.

"The board's decision to raise funds enables Avacta to retain 100% ownership of our highly promising programs based on our proprietary preCISION technology and provide us with a cash runway into H2 2026," she said.

"Completion of the raise also enables us to meet the terms of the Heights convertible loan note deferment.

"We believe this decision to be in the long-term interest of shareholders."

Coughlin said Avacta's clinical progress was accelerating, with its faridoxorubicin trial "gaining momentum" after phase 1a data presented at ESMO showed a 91% disease control rate.

"FAP-EXd is on track to enter clinical development in Q1 2026 and is generating interest from a number of potential partners," she added.

"Importantly, the funds raised allow Avacta to maintain control of this promising asset, allowing us to maximize potential value, while supporting our broader pipeline of programs."

At ESMO, Avacta also released detailed Phase 1a results for faridoxorubicin, confirming favorable safety, strong preliminary efficacy and a marked reduction in toxicities compared with conventional doxorubicin chemotherapy.

The trial, which included 63 patients across multiple dosing schedules, reported no maximum tolerated dose even at four times the standard dose level, and no severe cardiac toxicity despite cumulative exposures equivalent to 550 milligrams per square metre of conventional doxorubicin.

In salivary gland cancer patients treated with doses at or above 250 milligrams per square metre, faridoxorubicin achieved a 91% disease control rate, with median progression-free survival not yet reached and follow-up suggesting a more than doubling of benchmark outcomes.

Multiple tumor responses were also observed in patients with soft tissue sarcomas, with durable disease control seen even after treatment cessation.

Coughlin said the findings reinforced the potential of Avacta's preCISION delivery platform to transform chemotherapy safety and efficacy.

"These data continue to demonstrate the power of preCISION to generate meaningful PFS data in a patient population with limited therapeutic options and importantly with no FAP on the tumor cells," she said.

"The very strong cardiac safety data out to the cumulative maximum dose of 550 milligrams per square metre validates the safety implications of the platform and has the potential to open up a new avenue of treatment options for patients."

She added that the results "highlight three important findings for the preCISION platform: first, the elimination of the cardiac signal even at higher cumulative doses demonstrates that preCISION is capable of protecting normal tissues from toxicity.

"Second, the activity in a tumor type without FAP on the tumor cells confirms the bystander effect of preCISION.

"And third, the tumor concentration data even at low FAP expression opens up an even greater number of cancer types to the platform."

Avacta said enrollment was continuing in the phase 1b expansion cohorts of faridoxorubicin, with further data in salivary gland cancer expected by the end of 2025.

At 0950 BST, shares in Avacta were down 3.62% at 66.5p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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