ADC drug developers must bring in process innovation in the early R&D phase

In an Expert View piece, Charlie Johnson, chief executive of UK biotech ADC Bio, takes a look at a product class that is still in its infancy.

The antibody drug conjugate (ADC) development industry must address and overcome the current industry challenge of how to create much-needed and more efficient manufacturing processes – innovation which is not at present being completed by pharma. At present, a number of the larger CDMOs are focused solely on commercial scale ADC production and lack both the bandwidth and the motivation to design innovative manufacturing methods.

Consequently, I predict that this problem will be addressed by the more specialist ADC focused service providers designing the next crucial phase of innovation at the clinical development stage – achieving the goal of further optimizing and streamlining ADC production processes.