Contract Organizations Expanded in Autumn

Contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and contract research and development organizations (CDMOs) invested in expanded facilities and services in late 2018. The following are some recent investments for biologic drug development and manufacturing.

New and expanded facilities

AGC Biologics, a clinical and commercial manufacturer of therapeutic proteins, announced on Sept. 20, 2018 that it will establish a new process development and manufacturing facility at its CDMO facility in Chiba, Japan, as part of its ongoing program to expand its production capacities globally (1). The new facility will contain single-use bioreactors at the 500- and 2000-L scale and will be suited for the production of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), fusion proteins, and other types of therapeutic proteins. The facility is expected to be operational in the second half of 2019.

Collaborations

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB) announced on Nov. 1, 2018 that its collaboration with UK-based Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), for the project AMECRYS: Revolutionizing Downstream Processing of Monoclonal Antibodies by Continuous Template-Assisted Membrane Crystallisation, has hit an important milestone with the successful technology transfer of the expression and purification of model mAbs from FDB to CPI (2). AMECRYS is a research project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program in the framework of Future and Emerging Technologies actions (FET-OPEN), which supports early stages of science and technology research and innovation.

Charles River Laboratories International announced on Oct. 25, 2018 that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with Distributed Bio, a company specializing in computational design and optimization of antibody discovery platforms, that grants Charles River access to Distributed Bio’s antibody libraries and integrated antibody optimization technologies (3). Distributed Bio’s libraries are computationally optimized for sequence diversity and engineering fitness through the analysis of thousands of human antibody repertoires and all known monoclonal therapeutics in clinical trials. The companies expect to create an end-to-end platform for therapeutic antibody discovery and development.

New investments

ADC Biotechnology (ADC Bio) has secured additional funding of $3.18 million (£2.5 million) from existing investors and company management to ensure the achievement of specific business goals within the company’s overarching corporate strategy. 

“We are delighted to have obtained this additional injection of funds that will be used to support the company’s strategic aspirations, including conceptual design of a downstream formulation and filling operation to complement our existing bioconjugation operations at the Deeside facility. We are also looking to fully exploit our core Lock-Release technology to create a transformative manufacturing paradigm that will significantly streamline ADC manufacturing supply chains,” said Charlie Johnson, CEO of ADC Bio, in a company press statement (4).

References

1. AGC Biologics, “AGC Biologics Adds Mammalian Production Capacity in Japan,” Press Release, Sept. 20, 2018, www.agcbio.com/resource-center/news/agc-biologics-adds-mammalian-production-capacity-in-japan 
2. Fujifilm, “Fujifilm Announces that AMECRYS Collaboration Reaches Project Milestone to Develop New Technologies to Improve Downstream Processing of Monoclonal Antibodies,” Press Release, Nov. 1, 2018, www.fujifilmusa.com/press/news/display_news?newsID=881545
3.Charles River, “Charles River and Distributed Bio Enter Exclusive Partnership to Create an Integrated Antibody Discover and Development Platform,” Press Release, Oct. 25, 2018, http://ir.criver.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=121668&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2373437
4. ADC Bio, “ADC Bio Secures Additional Equity Round Investment,” Press Release, Nov. 14, 2018, http://adcbio.com/aer/ 

Article Details

Pharmaceutical Technology
Vol. 42, Issue 12
December 2018
Pages: 46–47

Citation

When referring to this article, please cite it as S. Haigney, "Contract Organizations Expanded in Autumn," Pharmaceutical Technology 42 (12) 2018.