UK-based ADC Biotechnology has announced a $10 million plan to build a 1,500 square meter manufacturing facility in St Asaph, North Wales, UK, for advanced anti-cancer drugs. The two-stage expansion program marks the transition of ADC Bio into GMP manufacturing of ADCs (antibody drug conjugates) and will create over 60 new science jobs at completion. The investment responds to demand by drug developers and a shortage of capacity to make these new drugs in quantities sufficient for large-scale clinical trials, according to the company.

Phase 1 of the project will come on stream in mid-2017, creating a 1,500 square meter dual-stream facility for process development, manufacturing, and quality testing of ADC drugs.From both scale and regulatory perspectives, the new facility will be able to produce clinical trial and low-volume commercial quantities. A projected second phase is planned to add another 2,500 square meters of manufacturing space for larger-scale clinical and commercial manufacturing. Over the past two years, the company has trebled its tech service lab space and science staff. Completed in early 2015, a £100,000 ($155,000) development added a second R&D lab, focused on bio-conjugation and payload-linker chemistry.

Source: ADC Biotechnology