LONDON: Avacta Therapeutics (AIM: AVCT), a life sciences company developing next generation peptide drug conjugates (PDC) targeting powerful anti-tumor payloads directly to the tumor, today announces the initiation of an artificial intelligence (AI)-focused collaboration with Tempus AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: TEM), a technology company leading the adoption of artificial intelligence to advance precision medicine and patient care.

The strategic collaboration will provide Avacta access to Tempus’ multimodal datasets comprising primary tumor samples and associated clinical data from over 200,000 patients across a broad range of cancer indications. The collaboration is designed to leverage these data to characterize the deep biology of the tumor microenvironment and fibroblast activation protein (FAP) activity upon which its pre|CISION^® technology is based.

In addition, Avacta has recently expanded its pre|CISION^® platform with the addition of two new preclinical programs: AVA6103 and AVA7100. AVA6103 is a novel pre|CISION^®-enabled peptide drug conjugate comprising exatecan, a potent topoisomerase I inhibitor, designed to deliver its powerful anti-tumor effects directly to the tumor while minimizing exposure to healthy tissues. AVA7100 is a first-in-class Affimer^® drug conjugate, aimed at cancers with varying levels of FAP expression, including low FAP. Together, these programs reflect the versatility of the pre|CISION^® platform and its potential to address a broad range of cancer indications.

Avacta plans to leverage these insights to further enhance its pre|CISION^® platform reach through the identification of the full addressable patient populations for its clinical programs. Tempus’s analytical support and computational biology experts will collaborate in the data analysis with the Avacta team.

Christina Coughlin, MD PhD, CEO of Avacta, said, “Our pipeline of pre|CISION^® oncology programs will benefit greatly from an extensive understanding of the tumor microenvironment, FAP biology and both high- and low-FAP expression across solid tumor settings. The Tempus AI real-world database and industry-leading AI capabilities will enable us to better assess the specific patient population most likely to respond to our pre|CISION^® therapies, enabling faster, smarter clinical development with the highest probability of success.”

Kate Sasser, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Tempus AI added, “A powerful use of AI in drug development is leveraging real-world data to have a deeper understanding of the patient populations that would benefit from a specific mechanism of action. Tempus was created to build one of the world’s largest libraries of multimodal data and an operating system to make those data accessible and useful. This collaboration with Avacta is another example of our execution of that vision, and we are thrilled to partner with Avacta in support of their efforts to bring game-changing new therapies to patients in need.”