Piramal opens ADC plant in Scotland

pharmafile | April 2, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production ADC, Abbott, Piramel 

India’s Piramal Healthcare has officially opened a new production unit to make antibody-drug conjugates at its facility in Grangemouth, Scotland.

The unit was officially opened by Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last week and will boost the number of people employed by Piramal at Grangemouth by 15 to 85 workers. The new unit was supported by a £145,000 ($230,000) grant from Scottish Enterprise. 

The unit aims to tap into the growing enthusiasm for ADCs, which combine antibodies to target diseased tissues or cells with chemical active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to exert an additional therapeutic effect. 

Many of the top pharmaceutical companies are already developing ADCs, including Roche, Bayer, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Abbott Laboratories, along with partners such as ImmunoGen, Immunomedics and Seattle Genetics. In the main the development focus is on cancer indications.

Pfizer was the first company to launch an ADC onto the market with its Mylotarg (gemtuzumab ozogamicin) product for CD33-positive acute myeloid leukemia, which debuted in 2000 but was withdrawn in 2010 on safety concerns. 

At present the only ADC on the US market is Seattle Genetics’ Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), which was approved in August 2011 to treat Hodgkin’s lymphoma and systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

There are a wealth of ADC compounds coming through the development pipelines, however, with one good example being Roche’s Herceptin (trastuzumab) follow-up T-DM1 (trastuzumab emtansine) for breast cancer, which is partnered with ImmunoGen and is due to be filed for approval later this year. 

Piramal has produced ADC material for Seattle Genetics and ImmunoGen, and said the new lab will boost its ability to supply commercial-scale quantities. Other companies offering contract manufacturing services in the ADC sector include Lonza and SAFC.

“I am delighted to be officially opening Piramal’s latest state of the art suite – and see first-hand the manufacture of the only licensed cancer drugs of this kind in the world,” said Sturgeon.

Phil Taylor

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