Avacta appoints new chief business officer

(Sharecast News) - Oncology drugs and diagnostics specialist Avacta Group announced the appointment of Dr Simon Bennett as the chief business officer of its therapeutics division on Tuesday. The AIM-traded company said Dr Bennet had more than 26 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, having collaborated with various companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Menarini Group and early-stage biotechs.

It said his expertise extended to various facets of business development and licensing, having been involved in executing more than 80 commercial deals across multiple continents.

"As chief business officer, Simon will work closely with the senior management team and lead commercial strategy and business development activities at this exciting period in the company's development as compelling clinical data emerges from the AVA6000 phase 1 trial," said chief executive officer Dr Alastair Smith.

"These emerging data give us, for the first time, the opportunity to accelerate ongoing discussions as well as to generate new opportunities through our business development activities aimed at delivering licensing opportunities for the preCISION and Affimer platforms."

Dr Bennett's time in the industry began at Oxagen, a spin-out from the University of Oxford, where he pioneered and expanded a women's health franchise.

He Initially served as programme director and later assumed the role of director of business development.

Subsequently, he joined Solexa, a next-generation sequencing company, as business development director.

In that capacity, he oversaw all commercial activities and external communications, leading to the successful reverse takeover of Nasdaq-listed Lynx Therapeutics and forming Solexa, later acquired by Illumina.

Following that, Dr Bennett ventured into consulting, offering expert commercial and business development support to a broad spectrum of biopharmaceutical companies.

Before transitioning into the industry, Simon Bennett served as a Wellcome Trust research fellow at the University of Oxford and held an honorary clinical lecturer position at Imperial College London.

His contributions to scientific research were particularly noted in complex disease genetics, with a substantial body of published work.

"Avacta is at a pivotal point, having recently announced clinical data that have already begun to generate interest from potential commercial partners," commented Dr Simon Bennett.

"I am delighted to be joining at such an exciting point in the journey of the business, to help the team optimise the commercial opportunities of their technologies and assets."

At 1004 GMT, shares in Avacta Group were up 2.19% at 116.5p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.