Avacta Group plc - Interim results notification and trading update
08 Mar 2010
Avacta Group plc ("Avacta" or the "Company"), which provides innovative, high value proprietary technologies and services to the pharmaceutical and diagnostics markets, is pleased to announce a trading update prior to the announcement of interim results on 30 April.
Avacta operates through two divisions:
· Avacta Analytical, which develops and
commercialises world leading analytical products and provides
specialized analytical services to the drug development
sector;
· Avacta Animal Health which develops and
commercialises diagnostic and rapid point of care testing products
and supporting diagnostics services to veterinary healthcare
providers.
The Company looks forward to reporting on a period of continued growth at its Interim Results.
Avacta Analytical
Contract service
revenues remain on target and well ahead of last year and continue
to deliver sustainable, high quality revenues. Avacta's recently
launched flagship product Optim has been highly acclaimed industry
wide and has already generated significant commercial interest.
Although the timing of specific product sales is inherently
difficult to accurately predict the Company's significant and
growing pipeline gives the Board confidence that its commercial
objectives and market expectations will be achieved. The
installation of the first unit was completed late last year, and
the customer is delighted with the significant operational
advantages Optim has brought to their laboratory.
Avacta Animal Health
Revenues are up
significantly from the same period last year and, having received
considerable interest from potential customers, Avacta looks
forward to launching Midas, the Company's flagship animal health
instrument, later this financial year. Midas uses similar
technology to Optim; it is a bench top rapid immunoassay system
designed to have high sensitivity for protein markers of
disease.
On 3rd March 2010 we announced the acquisition of Reactivlab which has served to expand the range of veterinary diagnostic tests delivered by Avacta Animal Health. The Company believes that the business has great potential to deliver strong sales of these tests, commercialised as a laboratory service, in kit form and on the Midas point-of-care platform.
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive, Avacta, commented: "Avacta's two divisions are growing strongly. Our two flagship products, Optim and Midas, will be key drivers of our growth in 2010 and beyond, delivering our strategy of commercialising our own innovative technologies and accelerating this growth through further acquisitions.
"Avacta addresses two huge global markets - biopharmaceutical development and veterinary healthcare - in a unique way to create a life science support Group with many high growth opportunities. I am particularly excited by the excellent feedback received from the first Optim installation and by the launch, later this year, of our first veterinary diagnostic product, Midas, which has the potential to create significant recurring revenues through test cartridge sales."
8 March 2010
Enquiries:
Avacta Group
plc
Tel: 0870 835
4367
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer
http://www.avacta.com/
Haggie Financial
LLP
Tel: 020 7417
8989
Nicholas
Nelson
Nominated
Adviser:
Daniel Stewart & Company Plc
| Tel: 020 7776
6550
Simon Leathers
Notes to Editors:
About Avacta
Avacta was spun-out from the University
of Leeds in 2004 by its current management team as a biophysics
company, with the aim of combining the disciplines of physics and
biology to develop innovative technologies and expert technical
services to address unmet needs in the biopharmaceutical and
healthcare sectors.
Avacta has a core bio-analytical technology development
programme addressing the
needs of the biopharmaceutical sector to fully characterise their
new products at the earliest stage in their development to reduce
the risk of late stage failure.
High end analytical instruments and leading edge contract research services are being provided to the biopharmaceutical and healthcare/personal-care materials sectors through the Group's biotech support division, Avacta Analytical. High value solutions for rapid, point of care diagnostics based on these core bio-analytical technologies, with a near term focus on veterinary diagnostics, are being delivered through Avacta Animal Health. Longer term these technologies will be transferred into the human clinical diagnostics market. Avacta joined AIM in August 2006.
