Collaboration announced for development and manufacture of monoclonal antibody

Catalent Pharma Solutions has signed a multi-year agreement with Grid Therapeutics for the development and manufacture of a lead therapeutic candidate for the treatment of solid tumours.

Grid is an oncology-focused biotech company that has focused its research upon a novel approach to identifying specific tumour immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies from patients with early stage cancer. Through using a unique strategy, Grid obtains the sequence of its lead IgG3 antibody directly from B cells in cancer patients.

“Grid Therapeutics is excited to partner with Catalent to develop this novel, human-derived antibody for the treatment of cancer. We feel Catalent Biologics is well positioned to bring this novel antibody to the clinic,” commented Dr Edward F. Patz, Jr, CEO of Grid Therapeutics.

“Catalent regularly and successfully partners with innovator companies looking to bring new, important therapies to market faster, and a patient derived IgG3 monoclonal antibody would be a significant advancement in optimized treatments,” added Mike Riley, vice president & general manager of Catalent Biologics.

Under the terms of the agreement, the biologics division of Catalent will use its cell line technology, GPEx, to develop cell lines and manufacture antibodies with an aim to optimise the process for cGMP bulk drug production. This project will be performed at the company’s biomanufacturing facility in Madison, Wisconsin.