LONDON and PHILADELPHIA, April 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avacta Therapeutics (AIM: AVCT, "the Company", "Avacta"), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing pre|CISION^®, a tumor-activated oncology delivery platform, today announces that the life sciences industry publication In Vivo, published by Citeline, has named its CEO Christina Coughlin MD, PhD as one of its 2026 Rising Leaders.

In Vivo is a leading strategic business publication providing news, analysis and insights for the biopharma, medtech and diagnostics industries. The 30 people spotlighted on the Rising Stars list are selected by In Vivo's editorial board, with the focus on entrepreneurs and innovators who represent the next wave of creativity in healthcare.

Dr. Coughlin's story is here.

Shaun Chilton, Chairman of Avacta, commented:

"Following her time as a practicing oncologist, Chris turned her focus over 20 years ago to the biopharma industry and began her search to find the cure, inspired her own personal story of the impact of cancer in her life.

In the two years since Chris was appointed as our Chief Executive Officer, she has rapidly developed Avacta's unique approach to treating cancer with its proprietary technology, pre|CISION^®. She leads the company's international team with a clear vision to conquer cancer by expanding the reach of existing therapies, while preserving patient vitality and healing. In a world where effective cancer therapy often means a difficult trade-off between efficacy and safety, pre|CISION can offer something different: hope without compromise.

Indeed, the skills that Chris and her extraordinarily talented team bring to bear could not be more clearly demonstrated than by one of the drug candidates, AVA6103, moving from discovery to first patients treated in a Phase 1a trial in just 24 months - an incredibly rapid time frame.

Chris is a very worthy selection as one of In Vivo's 30 Rising Leaders and we are proud of both her recognition and to have her as our CEO. This is a well-deserved recognition."

For further information from Avacta, please contact:

About Avacta - https://avacta.com/

Avacta Therapeutics is a clinical-stage life sciences company expanding the reach of highly potent cancer therapies through its proprietary pre|CISION^® platform. pre|CISION^® is a payload delivery system based on a tumor-specific protease (Fibroblast Activation Protein or FAP) that is designed to concentrate highly potent payloads in the tumor microenvironment while sparing normal tissues. Avacta's innovative pre|CISION^® peptide drug conjugates (PDC) are a novel entry to the XDC drug class, leveraging the success of antibody drug conjugates with alternative methods of delivery beyond antibodies. 

Our pre|CISION^® PDCs leverage this tumor-specific release mechanism to provide unique benefits over traditional antibody drug conjugates, releasing active payload in the tumor and reducing systemic exposure and toxicity which enables dosing to be optimized to deliver the best outcomes for patients. The lead clinical program is faridoxorubicin (AVA6000), a Gen One FAP-enabled pre|CISION^® version of doxorubicin that delivers the payload directly in the tumor with limited peripheral blood exposure and has demonstrated preliminary activity in tumor types sensitive to doxorubicin including salivary gland cancer and soft tissue sarcoma. 

About FAP-Exd (AVA6103)

AVA6103 is the second clinical candidate and is the first asset in the pipeline based on the Gen Two innovative pre|CISION^® sustained release mechanism that provides for prolonged release of payload directly in the tumor, minimizing systemic exposure.  AVA6103 is being evaluated in the FOCUS-01 Phase 1 trial (FAP-Exd in Oncologic Cancers with Unmet needS). Preclinical data suggest this approach has optimized payload delivery with a high intratumoral concentration and prolonged exposure of released payload in the tumor, coupled with limited systemic exposure to the released payload.

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