Axplora, a German CDMO that specializes in specialty active pharmaceutical ingredients for small molecules and antibody-drug conjugates, will shell out $60 million to expand its Farmabios manufacturing facility in Gropello Cairoli, Italy.
The project will include a new 4,500-square-meter, three-story R&D and lab hub that is designed to speed product development and expand capacity to churn out high-potency APIs (HPAPIs) at scale, the company said in a March 17 press release.
Construction on the expansion is currently underway and is expected to be completed by February 2027.
The facility will also house quality control and microbiology labs and support areas integrated into the plant’s existing operations. The site currently has five independent manufacturing lines.
“By expanding R&D, analytical and quality capabilities alongside large-scale HPAPI production, we are shortening development cycles and helping [partners] control cost while accelerating time to market,” Martin Meeson, Axplora’s CEO, said in a statement.
“Axplora already manufactures 6 of the 14 FDA-approved commercial ADCs, and we continue to see strong momentum across ADC and other high-potency programmes,” Meeson added.
The investment comes a year after Axplora, which was previously known as Novasep before changing its name in 2022, announced that it and a unnamed customer would spend 50 million euros ($57.4 million) at its production site in Mourenx, France.
That investment was aimed at boosting Axplora’s peptide purification strength and supporting the development of next-gen therapies, including GLP-1s.
The following month, the company said it was expanding its plant in Le Mans, France, with the addition of a payload manufacturing workshop in an effort to speed up ADC production. The company didn't put a price tag on that project.