On June 30, 2022 Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative cancer therapies and powerful diagnostics based on its proprietary Affimer and pre|CISION platforms, reported that LG Chem Life Sciences (LG Chem), the life sciences division of the South Korean LG Group, has exercised its renewal option as part of the ongoing collaboration with Avacta, triggering a license renewal fee payment to Avacta of $2 million (Press release, LG Chem, JUN 30, 2022, View Source [SID1234616415]).

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Under the terms of the agreement, LG Chem has the exclusive rights to develop and commercialise, on a global basis, Avacta’s Affimer PD-L1 inhibitor with Affimer XT serum half-life extension for a range of indications. LG Chem has exercised its license renewal option and will progress the PD-L1/XT candidate by commencing pre-clinical studies which are intended to form the basis of an Investigational New Drug (IND) submission.

In December 2018, Avacta and LG Chem entered into a multi-target development agreement to develop Affimer therapeutics in several disease areas. In 2020 the companies agreed to expand this drug development partnership to include Avacta’s Affimer XT technology, which can be used to control the time a drug spends in the blood.

Dr Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Avacta, commented: "I am very pleased with the progress being made by our partners LG Chem with the Affimer PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor programme, which includes the Affimer XT serum half-life extension technology. The initiation of IND enabling studies represents a significant step towards first-in-human clinical trials of the Affimer platform, which is a key value driver for the technology and for Avacta."