Avacta Expands Development Team in US

Biotherapeutics and reagents developer Avacta Group plc has established a commercial team in the United States of America, including the appointment of Dr Matthew Vincent as Vice President, Therapeutics Business Development based in Boston.

Dr. Vincent, a senior executive with over 25 years’ experience in multiple areas of biotechnology and life science, joined Avacta from Arisaph Pharmaceuticals where he led corporate development and therapeutic innovation strategy. Matthew was also former Director of Business Development at Ocata Therapeutics with responsibility for all commercial affairs including the eventual acquisition of Ocata by Astellas Pharmaceuticals. Matthew’s experience also includes developing therapeutic product profiles for regenerative medicine and immuno-oncology, pricing/reimbursement and regulatory strategy. Previously working as a lawyer and patent attorney, he has experience in worldwide patent portfolio strategy and IP diligence, regulatory affairs strategy, private and public financing and patent litigation.

The new US team, which along with Dr Vincent, includes a business development executive in both San Diego and Philadelphia, joins a commercial team headed by Chief Commercial Officer, Dr Philippe Cotrel who was previously Commercial Director of Abcam plc and who joined Avatca in 2016. The expansion in the US brings the total in that team to eight including UK/EU business development individuals, marketing and customer support.

Dr Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The US is a very important and large market for us and in order to exploit the scale of the opportunity in North America effectively, we have decided to establish a presence on both the east and west coasts. This expansion is a strong signal of our confidence in the technology and the growing interest from pharma, biotech and diagnostics that is being driven by the new data and applications that is rapidly emerging from our own and collaborators’ laboratories. This team’s task is to build the long term relationships that ultimately will lead to licensing deals and royalty based revenue from research and diagnostic applications and to secure Affimer therapeutic development partnerships.

“I am delighted that we have been able to bring someone with Matt Vincent’s extensive experience and network into the Group to specifically address the therapeutics business development opportunity and to capitalise on our continued technical delivery of the Affimer technology as a therapeutic platform.”