Astellas breaks ground on $95m antibody facility
pharmafile | January 20, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Agensys, Astellas, antibodies, antibody
Astellas has broken ground on a $95 million R&D and manufacturing facility in Santa Monica, USA, that will also serve as headquarters for the company’s biotech subsidiary Agensys.
The expansion will swell the headcount at Agensys from its current level of 211 to at least 300 by 2015, according to a spokesperson for the company, who said the 160,000 sq.ft. facility will carry out research and manufacturing of its portfolio of therapeutic antibody candidates.
Agensys has been based in Santa Monica since it was first set up in 1997 as a technology spin-out from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2007 it was acquired by the US division of Japanese drugmaker Astellas with the aim of feeding new antibody-based drugs, particularly in cancer, into the pharmaceutical firm’s pipeline.
Agensys currently has five antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in development directed at a variety of cancer indications as well as several candidates in late preclinical development, said the spokesperson.
Antibodies which have reached the clinical trial stage at the company include AGS-16M8F and AGS-16M18 for a form of kidney cancer known as renal cell carcinoma, AGS-5ME and AGS-1C4D4 for prostate cancer and AGS-8M4 for ovarian cancer.
At the moment the company’s lead product candidate is AGS-16M8, an ADC composed of a fully human monoclonal antibody directed to ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 3 (ENPP3), a new cellular target expressed in the majority of renal cancers. The antibody is linked to the cytotoxic drug monomethyl auristatin F (MMAF).
The new site will consolidate Agensys’ locations in Santa Monica to three from six at present and should be operational by 2013, according to Paul Kanan, the firm’s executive vice president.
“We were founded in Santa Monica 14 years ago and it is great to be able to stay here and build the special facilities we need for our cancer research and manufacturing of antibody products,” he said.
Phil Taylor
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