The Germany-headquartered firm said it will equip Abzena’s Bristol, Pennsylvania site – used to develop and GMP (good manufacturing practice) manufacture antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) – with single use bioreactors up to 500L scale.
The vendor will also supply Abzena’s San Diego, California-based facility, where it develops and GMP manufactures monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and other recombinant proteins for clients, with a disposable 2000L bioreactor.
The Pennsylvania site is already available for contract work, and the California facility will be fully operational by the end of Q1, 2019, an Abzena spokesperson told us.
The spokesperson said Abezena’s existing capabilities in Pennsylvania have increased with an investment in process development equipment and process analytics.
“The 500L bioreactor scale is the same as that for the current wave manufacturing platform, but the single-use stirred tank bioreactors from Sartorius offer advantages for process consistency through scale-up and increased operational efficiency,” the spokesperson told us.
“We see demand for manufacturing programmes using single-use stirred tank bioreactors as well as clients wanting batch sizes greater than 500L and hence the planned installation of 2000L bioreactor into a new facility which is expected to be operational by the end of Q1 2019,” he added.
The spokesperson told us he expects the additional equipment will attract new business.
Abzena has process development and manufacturing clients from the US, Europe (including the UK) and Asia.