Avacta reports strong operational progress
By Josh White
Date: Tuesday 20 Jan 2026
(Sharecast News) - Avacta Group reported strong operational progress during 2025 on Tuesday as the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advanced its preCISION tumour-activated oncology platform, strengthened its intellectual property estate and secured additional funding to support the transition of a second programme into the clinic in 2026.
The AIM-traded firm said it made "excellent progress" across its research and development portfolio during the year, with two programmes expected to be in clinical development in 2026.
Avacta said it raised £22.5m in equity during 2025 and ended the year with unaudited cash and cash equivalents of £16.9m, providing funding runway into the third quarter of 2026.
In addition, it realised just over £15m from the disposal of non-core diagnostics businesses and renegotiated the terms of its convertible bond, deferring repayments and interest due in early 2026 until October 2027, while resetting the conversion price at 75.0p.
In its lead faridoxorubicin (AVA6000) programme, Avacta highlighted highly encouraging efficacy and safety data reported in December from patients with salivary gland cancer, where a disease control rate of 90% was maintained across the full cohort.
The phase 1b expansion cohorts continued to enrol during the year, aimed at assessing efficacy in more defined patient populations to inform the design of later-stage trials.
It said survival data in the indication continued to mature, with further updates expected in the first half of 2026, alongside data from the triple negative breast cancer cohort.
Progress was also reported in the FAP-Exd (AVA6103) programme, where new pharmacology data were released in December to support the investigational new drug process.
Avacta said clinical testing is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory clearance, with multiple US oncology centres expected to open to enrol patients across four tumour types - pancreatic, gastric, small cell lung and cervical cancers.
Preliminary data from the Phase 1 trial are anticipated in the second half of 2026.
Alongside programme development, the group said its intellectual property portfolio continued to expand, including advances relating to a sustained-release payload delivery mechanism and a dual payload delivery approach designed to allow two therapeutic agents to be released within the tumour microenvironment from a single preCISION medicine.
Avacta said it planned to select payloads for its first dual payload programme, AVA6207, during 2026.
Looking ahead, Avacta said 2026 was expected to be a data-rich year, with multiple readouts planned across both clinical-stage programmes and continued discussions with potential partners regarding faridoxorubicin and FAP-Exd.
"We gained real traction with our research and development programmes, based on our unique industry leading technology, preCISION, during 2025," said chief executive officer Christina Coughlin.
"There are no other technologies that can deliver cancer treatment drugs directly into the tumor at the concentrations that our payloads enable without causing highly toxic side effects."
She added that the initiation of the AVA6103 clinical trial later this quarter represented "a significant milestone achievement", and said the board believed the year ahead "will be a transformative period for the company, patients and our shareholders."
At 1325 GMT, shares in Avacta Group were down 5.83% at 52.27p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
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