Sparx Therapeutics has announced a plan to build a 1.2m sqft manufacturing facility in Yangzhou, China, inching closer to becoming a commercial stage biopharma.
CEO of Sparx, Gui-Dong Zhu, signed a 20-year lease agreement with the landlord, Yangzhou Economic Zone.
Sparx is an emerging biotech power best known for its multi-specific antibody and antibody drug conjugate (ADC) discovery platforms. Sparx leverages artificial intelligence to drive its proprietary target mining engine, allowing identification of cellular targets which can best be leveraged for optimal and synergistic biological activity.
This sophisticated target discovery platform is combined with an integrated multi-component SAILING antibody optimization system and four cutting-edge ADC technologies to markedly improve the success rate of empowered antibody drug development.
"The global pharmaceutical market is growing with strength and empowered antibody discovery is taking the center stage in driving these efforts," said Zhu. "The current cGMP pilot plant is not able to meet our development needs and the planned facilities, with a total bioreactor capacity of 80,000 litres, will provide sufficient quantities of drug substances and drug products to support preclinical and clinical development and ultimately commercial launch."
Located east of Shanghai, Sparx's Yangzhou manufacturing site plans to build a 400,000 sqft cGMP cleanroom on a 10-acre parcel of land.
The total bioreactor capacity of 80,000 litres in separate cleanroom suites is able to support the manufacturing needs of 5 commercial products in parallel and the CMC needs for more than 12 programmes in clinical trials at various stages of development.
The facility is projected to be in operation by the end of 2022.
