Drugmaker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has opened its new monoclonal antibody manufacturing facility in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

The facility supplements Glenmark’s existing in-house discovery and development capabilities and will supply material for clinical development, a note from the Mumbai-based company said. Glenmark currently has 69 employees at its biologic research centre.

The Swiss research centre has fully developed in-house capabilities and infrastructure for conducting antibody discovery, cell line development, in-vitro testing and characterisation of antibodies, process development and analytical research.

Dr Michael Buschle, Glenmark’s President (Biologics) said, “We have been doing cutting edge work in the area of novel monoclonal antibodies and have several monoclonal antibody candidates & bispecific antibodies in the pipeline. The manufacturing facility would help us bring these antibodies to the clinic faster and position Glenmark as a leading innovative pharmaceutical company.”

Glenmark’s biologics research centre in Switzerland has a robust pipeline of monoclonal antibodies in various stages of development including bispecific antibodies. The focus for the biologics research centre is to develop novel biologic entities for the treatment of pain, inflammatory, oncologic and respiratory conditions.

In the last 10 years, Glenmark’s biologics research centre has filed several patents on novel biologic entities, the company said. GBR 500 its most advanced candidate has been licensed to Sanofi and is currently in the second phase (Phase II) of testing the drug on humans. GBR 900, a first-in-class molecule for treatment of chronic pain is currently in Phase 1.