LONDON and PHILADELPHIA – March 26, 2026 – Avacta Therapeutics (AIM: AVCT, “the Company”, “Avacta”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing pre|CISION®, a tumor-activated oncology delivery platform, today announces a proposed equity placing of approximately 15,000,000 new ordinary shares of 10 pence each in the capital of the Company (“Ordinary Shares”) (the “Placing Shares”) (the “Placing”), together with a subscription for approximately 873,016 new Ordinary Shares (the “Subscription Shares”) (the “Subscription”), in each case at an issue price of 63 pence per new Ordinary Share (the “Issue Price”), to raise gross proceeds of approximately £10 million (the “Fundraise”).
Background to and reasons for the Fundraise
Avacta is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of its proprietary pre|CISION® tumor-activated drug delivery platform. The Company’s second clinical program, AVA6103 (FAP-Exd), is progressing into clinical development, with dosing expected to commence imminently. AVA6103 is a pre|CISION® peptide drug conjugate (PDC) that is based on a highly potent topoisomerase I inhibitor, exatecan.
The Board believes that AVA6103 represents a potentially significant advancement in the delivery of exatecan, utilizing the proprietary sustained-release pre|CISION® PDC technology. This approach is designed to enhance efficacy while mitigating the severe toxicities historically associated with exatecan observed in earlier clinical development. The Company considers that AVA6103 has the potential to validate its novel pre|CISION® sustained release mechanism thereby advancing the opportunity for a large number of oncology medicines to be available on the platform through the novel chemistry designs. The clinical trial of AVA6103 is structured to further validate the preclinical observations of the novel payload delivery kinetics.
Avacta continues to progress the Phase 1b expansion cohorts of faridoxorubicin (AVA6000). These cohorts have nearly completed enrollment in three indications: salivary gland cancer (SGC), triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and soft tissue sarcoma (STS). The Company will release additional data from the Phase 1a and Phase 1b cohorts in 1H 2026, updating the efficacy in the lead indication of SGC as well as the other indications and the cardiac safety data that led to the removal of the lifetime maximum dosing of faridoxorubicin. The Board expects these data collectively will solidify the view of the value of faridoxorubicin.
The net proceeds of the Fundraise are expected to provide further working capital to progress the Company’s research and development programs into early Q1 2027. In addition, the Fundraise proceeds are expected to provide sufficient cash runway beyond the initial data read out of the AVA6103 (FAP-Exd) Phase 1a trial, expected in late 2026, which the Board believes will be a significant milestone for ongoing commercial discussions.
Despite significant interest in AVA6103, the Company’s strategy remains to retain all rights to AVA6103 at least until the Company has sight of the initial results from the Phase 1a trial.
The program continues to move into clinical development faster than normal industry timelines.
Director Subscriptions
Richard Hughes, a Non-Executive Director of the Company, intends to subscribe for 793,651 new Ordinary Shares at the Issue Price, representing an investment of approximately £500,000. David Bryant, also a Non-Executive Director of the Company, also intends to subscribe for 79,365 new Ordinary Shares at the Issue Price, representing an investment of approximately £50,000.
Christina Coughlin, CEO of Avacta, commented:
“The Board’s decision to raise funds enables Avacta to continue to retain 100% ownership of our highly promising programs based on our proprietary pre|CISION®️ technology and provide us with a cash runway into early Q1 2027. We believe this decision to overwhelmingly be in the long-term interest of shareholders, such is the potential for our proprietary technology.
“The centers are now open for the Phase 1 trial of our second program AVA6103. This financing ensures an extended cash runway, as we move towards the preliminary results from this study in H2 2026, and other important development milestones expected later this year and early in 2027. These will include candidate selection for our third pipeline asset, AVA6207, which we believe is the first-ever dual payload peptide drug conjugate, and we continue our active interaction with potential partners, in particular for our lead programs, faridoxorubicin and AVA6103.”
The Issue Price represents a discount of approximately 9.35% to the closing mid-market price of 69.5 pence per Existing Ordinary Share on 25 March 2026, being the last trading day prior to the publication of this Announcement.
Zeus Capital Limited (“Zeus Capital”) is acting as sole broker and sole bookrunner (the “Bookrunner”) in connection with the Placing and Subscription. The Placing Shares are being offered by way of an accelerated bookbuild available to qualifying investors (the “Accelerated Bookbuild”), which will be launched immediately following the release of this Announcement, in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in Appendix 1 to this Announcement.
Additional details of the Placing and Subscription
Neither the Placing nor the Subscription have been underwritten.
The timing of the closing of the Accelerated Bookbuild and the allocation of Placing Shares to be issued at the Issue Price are to be determined at the discretion of the Company and the Bookrunner.
A further announcement confirming the results of the Accelerated Bookbuild and further details of the Subscription will be released by the Company following the close of the Accelerated Bookbuild.