Rentschler Biopharma entered into a strategic collaboration with Genmab for the process development and manufacture of bispecific antibodies generated with Genmab’s DuoBody® technology platform. The partnership uses a business model which fits the expansion plans for Rentschler’s U.S. site in Milford, MA, according to Federico Pollano, senior VP, business development, at Rentschler.
“We are excited to expand our strategic partnership with Genmab, a leading biotech specializing in the creation and development of differentiated antibody therapeutics, to our U.S. facility, he said. “In this new age of personalized medicine, breakthrough molecules, and complex therapies, Rentschler Biopharma welcomes the opportunity to use innovation to empower our clients and ultimately help patients. The work we will do for Genmab at our U.S. site represents a first-of-its-kind collaboration that will involve several novel projects and enable the client to decide in a flexible and agile way which projects to advance and when.”
Rentschler acquired its U.S. site in January 2019. The FDA-, EMA-, and Health Canada-licensed 93,000 square foot facility will be qualified as a multi-product site. The first step in expanding Rentschler Biopharma’s Center of Excellence in North America is a 500 L single-use bioreactor that will be operational by mid-2020, added Pollano. The next steps include another building for large-scale single-use manufacturing and lab capacity for new therapeutic modalities.
The company plans to leverage its expertise for client projects through every phase, be it early-stage development or clinical and commercial production. The Milford site is already taking on new projects, noted Pollano, including complex and difficult-to-manufacture proteins. In total, Rentschler Biopharma intends to continuously invest in these expansions and to hire up to 75 additional people at the site to keep pace with the site development and business growth, he said.
