Levena Biopharma Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of San Diego-based Sorrento Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has completed construction and put into operation a 25,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China to support Sorrento’s antibody drug conjugate (ADC) pipeline and services business.

The new plant is designed to provide analytical support capabilities, GMP production of toxin-linkers, and GMP-grade bioconjugation of the antibody to produce ADCs. The new facility is in addition to Sorrento’s existing ADC research sites in Nanjing, China and San Diego.

Sorrento currently has a dozen preclinical cancer-focused ADCs for which it is partnered with other biopharmaceutical companies. These partnerships have ADC candidates at various stages of development, including a HER2-targeting ADC which has an expected investigational new drug (IND) filing with the China Food and Drug Administration in 2017. Sorrento expects to receive service revenue and royalties on its partnered ADC programs. Additionally, Sorrento is advancing two proprietary anti-cancer ADC product candidates into IND-enabling studies, including its proprietary anti-CD38 ADC and an anti-c-MET ADC. c-MET is a receptor tyrosine kinase that, after binding with its ligand, hepatocyte growth factor, activates different cellular signaling pathways.

Source: Sorrento Therapeutics