Company Appointments - Avacta Therapeutics has appointed David Bryant and Richard Hughes as Non-Executive Directors, effective immediately [1] - David Bryant brings over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having held leadership roles at GSK and Pfizer, and was part of the management team at Clinigen Group during its IPO and subsequent sale for $1.6 billion [2] - Richard Hughes has over 30 years of corporate finance experience in UK capital markets, including roles in IPOs, equity capital raising, and M&A, and was a founder of Zeus Capital [3] Strategic Focus - The appointments are aimed at enhancing the Board's capabilities as Avacta transitions into a dedicated therapeutics company, focusing on its pre|CISION platform [4] - The pre|CISION platform is designed to deliver potent anti-tumor payloads directly to tumors while minimizing side effects, which is expected to improve patient outcomes [5][9] Executive Insights - David Bryant expressed enthusiasm about collaborating with the executive management team, particularly with the recent advancements in the pre|CISION platform and the upcoming clinical program [5] - Richard Hughes highlighted the potential impact of the pre|CISION platform on therapeutic standards and his commitment to leveraging his experience in fundraising and business scaling to benefit shareholders [5] Company Overview - Avacta Therapeutics is a clinical-stage life sciences company focused on developing peptide drug conjugates that utilize the pre|CISION platform to enhance cancer therapy effectiveness [8] - The pre|CISION platform utilizes a tumor-specific protease to release active drug payloads in the tumor microenvironment, thereby reducing systemic exposure and toxicity [9]

Core Insights - Avacta Therapeutics announced promising preclinical results for its second pre|CISION candidate, FAP-EXd (AVA6103), which shows tumor growth inhibition and durable complete responses in therapy-resistant models [1][5] Group 1: Pre|CISION Platform - The pre|CISION platform targets fibroblast activation protein-alpha (FAPα), which is overexpressed in a wide range of solid tumors, allowing for localized drug activation [2][6] - Avacta's proprietary pre|CISION chemistry enhances drug efficacy while minimizing systemic toxicity by activating potent drugs selectively at the tumor site [2][11] Group 2: AVA6103 (FAP-EXd) Highlights - AVA6103 delivers the topoisomerase I inhibitor exatecan directly to the tumor-stroma interface, optimizing pharmacokinetics and minimizing systemic toxicity [4][11] - Despite exatecan's short half-life of 9 hours, FAP-EXd can achieve high tumor concentrations with projected exposures exceeding 60 hours from a single dose [4][5] Group 3: Efficacy and Future Plans - FAP-EXd has shown significant tumor growth inhibition and durable complete responses in multiple patient-derived xenograft models, including those resistant to topoisomerase I inhibition [5] - The company anticipates submitting an investigational new drug (IND) application in December 2025 and starting the first-in-human study in Q1 2026 [5] Group 4: Collaboration and Research Insights - Avacta's collaboration with Tempus has confirmed consistent FAP expression across therapy lines and identified optimal patient populations for pre|CISION medicines [7] - The broad expression of FAP in human solid tumors supports the potential of the pre|CISION platform to deliver effective therapies across multiple indications [6][7]