Affimer® technology

Next-generation biotherapeutics to surpass the limitations of cancer therapies

Avacta’s proprietary Affimer® technology is a novel class of small molecule entities, based on the naturally occurring human protein Stefin A, which enables the delivery of next-generation biotherapeutics.

Affimer® proteins are smaller than antibodies meaning that they potentially have better tissue penetration advantages in solid tumours. This, combined with strong stability and high expression, confers excellent drug-like properties to Affimer molecules.

The PK/PD of therapeutic Affimers can be tuned using Affimer® XT, a serum albumin-binding Affimer with half-life extension properties, or using Affimer-Fc fusions. Affimer® proteins can also be genetically fused to each other to form multi-specific therapies, or to other proteins, such as the C-terminus of an antibody, to generate bispecific biobetter formats.

Avacta has provided further pre-clinical proof of concept in its joint venture with Daewoong, called AffyXell. AffyXell develops mesenchymal stem cell-based therapies expressing Affimers to improve cell-based treatments for patients with immune-related conditions.

The Affimer® platform at a glance

 

Key advantages

  • Affimer® proteins can be made to be exquisitely specific.
  • Affimer® proteins can be generated to bind to targets that have proven very difficult for antibodies.
  • Affimer® proteins can be linked to create multi-specific therapeutics that address more than one target
  • Affimer® proteins have excellent properties for drug development
    • They can quickly be generated to bind to a target of interest
    • They have a tuneable serum half-life
    • They are relatively cheap to manufacture.
    • They are robust, stable and highly soluble
    • They have no post-translational modifications
    • The core Affimer® protein is human and therefore the risk of immunogenicity is lowered.

Delivering next-generation biotherapeutics

Avacta has partnered with LGChem for its lead Affimer® programme, a PD-L1 XT Affimer® antagonist which is in pre-clinical development. Avacta is also developing a robust pipeline of future Affimer bispecifics.

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