Aptamer extends agreement with genetic medicines customer

Aptamer Group plc (AIM: APTA), the developer of novel Optimer^® binders to enable innovation in the life sciences industry, is pleased to announce that a genetic medicines customer has selected to progress to the final commercial development phase for Optimer delivery vehicles.

Validation of Optimer delivery vehicle by customer prompts progression to final commercial development stage. Image Credit: Aptamer Group plc

Over the past ten months, Aptamer has successfully developed Optimer delivery vehicles and shipped Optimer test material to the customer during October 2024. The performance of these delivery vehicles has been validated by the customer, indicating that the Optimer delivery vehicles can specifically target the required cell type, with the potential to be used as part of a precision therapy, which would deliver downstream licensing revenue for Aptamer.

The same customer has also successfully demonstrated Optimer binding to the target cells from a panel of different animal species. This pan-species specificity is highly desirable to facilitate progression through preclinical development, where testing in multiple animal species is often used before testing in humans. Due to the targeting specificity, multiple species binding, and reproducibility of the results, the customer has committed to progressing to the final commercial development stage for the therapeutic delivery vehicle.

More generally, the targeting of genetic medicines to specific cell types remains a major challenge within the field. Optimer technology offers a cutting-edge approach to innovative delivery solutions to address this issue. Aptamer can develop highly selective delivery vehicles targeting cell types that have been difficult to achieve with other technologies.

This is exemplified in Aptamer’s pipeline, where the Group is developing delivery vehicles that target fibrotic liver cells in collaboration with AstraZeneca. Proven selective targeting and significant gene therapy effects have been shown using the Optimer. Development of this fibrotic liver delivery vehicle continues to progress for genetic medicine payloads, aiming to move to preclinical studies that will be pivotal in demonstrating the effectiveness of the technology for this additional specific application.

"We are delighted with our customer’s decision to advance to the final stage of Optimer development. The customer’s results align with those seen within our own laboratories and validate the hard work of our scientific team to develop novel, high-performance delivery vehicles.''

Dr Arron Tolley, Chief Executive Officer of Aptamer Group

They continued, ''As this Optimer advances through the final development stages, we continue to move closer to demonstrating the strength of our Optimer platform in generating high-value, therapeutic targeting assets. This represents our second drug delivery asset with licensing potential, alongside our liver fibrosis targeting Optimer, which has already shown good effectiveness in delivering functional genetic medicines to specific cells. These could enable new approaches to precise drug delivery across the field of genetic medicines whilst underpinning our business model with passive income from licensing.  We look forward to updating shareholders on future progress in due course."