Investment for bioconjugation facility secured by ADC Bio

ADC Biotechnology has secured investment for an $11 million bioconjugation facility, to be constructed at its new site in Deeside, North Wales, UK.

This new facility will see the company move into the area of clinical and commercial drug manufacturing and is anticipated to be operational by December 2018. It will support manufacturing in all clinical phases and small-scale commercial production of antibody drug conjugates, as well as provide GMP production suites equipped with vessels of 10 up to a few hundred litres for batch sizes from 100 grams up to a kilo.

“We already have confirmation that many of our existing customers will use the facility for clinical development and we anticipate adding a number of the new targets entering clinical development from customers in the US and Europe — especially in light of the added value we can provide through Lock-Release,” commented Charlie Johnson, CEO of ADC Bio. “For many of the newer types of payload this could well be the difference between a viable product and not.”

The company’s ‘Lock-Release’ technology is an aggregation control platform that helps overcome aggregation challenges. It works by immobilising protein elements — keeping them separated up to the point they are conjugated — which means that drug products release are clean and the quality and yield of highly aggregated systems are managed in one single step. The technology will also be available for licensing and sublicensing in the future.

“We are already preparing for future phases of development and the medium-term manufacturing pipeline for the business looks extremely strong. But longer term, we also have a lot of USPs — as a standalone site with patented Lock-Release technology — which makes us extremely attractive,” added Johnson.

“ADC Bio is one of the pioneers in manufacturing of oncology therapeutics,” stated Melanie Goward, investment director at Maven — one of the technology investors involved in the project. “We are delighted to be leading the consortium of investors to fund the company’s new innovative clinical facility in Wales, as well as creating highly skilled new jobs in the area. This is a hugely exciting time for ADC Bio given the growing global demand for anti-cancer drugs and we have every confidence that the company will benefit from the cost efficiencies of its Lock-Release technology. We look forward to working with Charlie Johnson and his highly skilled team as they grow the already strong customer base.”

“The investment and development in the new facility will see the creation of a host of new, degree level and above jobs locally,” Johnson summarised. “It’s really exciting that some of the world’s most advanced therapies will be developed here in the North West and we would like to thank the teams at Maven, Seneca, Finance Wales and the Welsh Government for their support and investment to help fund this project.”