LONDON and PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avacta Therapeutics (AIM: AVCT, ‘Avacta’, ‘the Company’), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing pre|CISION®, a unique oncology delivery platform, today announces that the Company will present data on its first dual-payload peptide drug conjugate (PDC) at the 2025 AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Boston on October 25.
The data highlights the Company’s proprietary development enabling two complementary drugs to be delivered via a single pre|CISION® medicine, representing the first dual payload PDC in the field. Data presented will be in vitro proof of mechanism for this platform innovation.
Drug combinations are commonly used in cancer therapy to improve outcomes and mitigate against resistance. This novel approach extends the pre|CISION® technology to allow for the selective and controlled release of two cancer-targeting payloads directly in the tumor, from a single molecule via fibroblast activation protein (FAP) cleavage.
Previously, development of the pre|CISION® platform focused on optimizing the delivery of single payloads to the tumor microenvironment leveraging the cleavage event by FAP, expressed in more than 90% of solid tumors. The new dual payload innovation expands the platform’s versatility, opening potential for more complex and effective oncology treatments.
Christina Coughlin, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Avacta, said:
“The development of the first dual payload peptide drug conjugate platform marks a major leap forward in oncology therapy. This significantly extends the potential of our innovative pre|CISION® platform by implementing combination cancer therapy in a single medicine.
“This new IP builds on the success of our FAP-EXd (AVA6103) program, where we invented a sustained release delivery mechanism with the platform. Our novel implementation of the platform extends this observation to now release two drugs from one pre|CISION® molecule. The key factor here is our ability to target the tumor with a cytotoxic drug and attack the known resistance mechanism all in one cancer medicine. By building on the prior knowledge, we have now extended the reach to highly-resistant cancers by targeting key resistance mechanisms.
“This drug combination approach demonstrates the value we are building in our proprietary pre|CISION® technology by further underlining its flexibility and unique potential to expand into novel oncology therapeutic approaches.
“We look forward to presenting the full data at the 2025 EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium later this month.”
Event details are below and are available online on the 2025 EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium website.
Title: Discovery and characterization of novel pre|CISION® technology compounds delivering complementary dual payloads to the tumor microenvironment following FAP cleavage
Authors: Tom Clough, Alexa Kennedy, Ellen Watts, Iva Zlatareva, Folake Orafidiya, Hanna Buist, Jannah Jeon, Sophie Brown, Doug Sammon, Victoria Juskaite, David Jones, Dave Liebowitz, Michelle Morrow, Francis Wilson
Speaker: Francis Wilson
Session: Poster Session C
Date and Time: Saturday, October 25, 12:30-4pm
For further information from Avacta, please contact:
| Avacta Group plc Christina Coughlin, Chief Executive Officer | https://avacta.com/ via ICR Healthcare |
| Peel Hunt (Nomad and Joint Broker) James Steel / Chris Golden | www.peelhunt.com |
| Panmure Liberum (Joint Broker) Emma Earl / Will Goode / Mark Rogers Zeus (Joint Broker) James Hornigold / George Duxberry Dominic King | www.panmureliberum.com www.zeuscapital.co.uk |
| ICR Healthcare (Europe/UK media and investors) Mary-Jane Elliott / Jessica Hodgson / Stephanie Cuthbert | avacta@icrhealthcare.com |
| Investor Contact Renee Leck THRUST Strategic Communications | renee@thrustsc.com |
| Media Contact Carly Scaduto THRUST Strategic Communications | carly@thrustsc.com |
About Avacta – www.avacta.com
Avacta is a clinical stage life sciences company developing an innovative proprietary drug delivery peptide drug conjugate (PDC) platform, pre|CISION®. The pre|CISION® platform uniquely enables the repurposing of a range of oncology drugs as PDC payloads with the goal to significantly reduce toxicity and side effects for patients by concentrating the drug directly in the tumor.
About pre|CISION®
The key aspect of pre|CISION® is its peptide drug conjugates (PDC) technology. The combination of the cancer drug and the proprietary cleavable peptide (the PDC) is inert and incapable of entering cells and killing them until the peptide is specifically released within the tumor. The active payload in the pre|CISION® PDC is released when the PDC comes into contact with the common tumor-associated protein, known as fibroblast activation protein (FAP), in the tumor. The release of the payload from the pre|CISION® product directly in the tumor results in higher concentration of the drug at the tumor and lower blood and healthy tissue levels than standard systemic administration, offering the potential to improve efficacy and patient tolerability.
