Sigma-Aldrich Corporation has announced that SAFC Commercial, its custom manufacturing services business unit, has completed the expansion of its St. Louis facility to support commercial-scale antibody drug conjugate (ADC) manufacturing. The facility is in final validation and expected to go online as planned in the third quarter of 2015. Once validated, customers will benefit from working with a single supplier from discovery to commercialisation.
Designed to meet SafeBridge category 4 compound handling to safely accommodate usage of highly-active compounds, the St. Louis expansion creates commercial-scale manufacturing capacity for ADCs and other targeted therapies. The expanded capabilities in St. Louis are further enhanced by expanded commercial capacity for highly-active manufacturing and storage at the company’s Madison, Wisconsin, facility.
SAFC’s offers include cell-line engineering and media, linkers and payloads, along with significant conjugation expertise using both highly-active and non-potent compounds. The St. Louis expansion complements other recent additions in ADC capabilities, including the announcement of SAFC’s ADC Express service for preclinical ADC and bioconjugation services, and a collaboration with Baxter BioPharma Solutions for formulation and fill/finish services.
“The ADC market is a growing market and is expected to expand over the next few years. This strategic expansion is the latest in a series of enhancements in our ADC offering designed to support this important therapeutic area and to help our customers to seamlessly scale ADC production from preclinical to commercial phases,” said Gilles Cottier, president of SAFC. “Our offer can bring customers’ molecules to the clinic faster, with the ease of working with one supplier from start to finish. With the added support of our recently launched ADC Express service, we believe SAFC presents the most comprehensive offer in the contract manufacturing market.”