Axplora Group GmbH

German CDMO Axplora hit the gas at its Le Mans, France, facility with the addition of a payload manufacturing workshop tipped to speed its ADC production timelines. Less than a month after unveiling a peptide expansion at its production site in Mourenx, CDMO Axplora has hit the gas on a capacity-building project at another French plant.Axplora is bulking up at its Le Mans, France, facility with the addition of a payload manufacturing workshop tipped to speed its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) production timelines for clients.Although financial details of the project weren’t disclosed, the company said in a March 4 press release that the new workshop boasts a trio of reactors—with capacity to add a fourth—that can each produce between 30 to 200 liters per manufacturing run. The site is intended to help Axplora meet demand for next-generation payloads being used in innovative oncology therapies, the company said. Payload manufacturing is the process of creating the drug-carrying component of an ADC, which combines a monoclonal antibody with a therapeutic payload to target and kill cancer cells.“By combining state-of-the-art payload manufacturing with our proven expertise in purification and bioconjugation, we’re enabling pharmaceutical innovators to accelerate drug development and deliver transformative treatments to patients faster,” Arul Ramadurai, Axplora’s chief commercial officer, said in the release.News of the upgrades at the Le Mans site comes just three weeks after Axplora announced a €50 million expansion at its Mourenx, France, facility, which is being financed with the help of an unnamed customer. That project is expected to increase Axplora’s overall peptide purification strength and support the development of new biologic therapies, including GLP-1 drugs to treat diabetes and obesity.Meanwhile, Axplora last January said it would invest 8 million euros (about $8.6 million) to beef up ADC payload manufacturing capacity at Le Mans in a move slated to create at least 15 new jobs. The project, which added another production suite to the site, helped equip Axplora to produce various payloads at kilogram scale, the company said at the time. Based in Germany, Axplora was born through the 2022 merger of Novasep and PharmaZell, plus the subsequent integration of generic active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) specialist Farmabios. The combined company currently operates nine API production facilities across Europe and India. 

India's Granules has shelled out a reported $22.3 million to snap up Swiss CDMO Senn Chemicals. The move positions Granules to break into in the booming peptides production business. In a bid to break into the CDMO business at one of its most lucrative angles, India's Granules is snapping up Swiss contract manufacturer Senn Chemicals.The deal, once closed, will immediately propel Granules into the fast-growing market for peptide-based therapeutics thanks to Senn's know-how in both liquid-phase peptide synthesis (LPPS) and solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS), Granules explained in a press release. Although Granules didn’t disclose the sale price, The Economic Times reported the price tag at 20 million Swiss francs ($22.3 million). The deal is expected to close in the first half of this year.Senn already boasts a strong CDMO business and an established rolodex of clients, Granules said in its release.The company aims to make a name for itself in the peptide-based drug market for diabetes and obesity, which has experienced a meteoric rise in recent years thanks to the advent of GLP-1 drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. “By entering the rapidly growing peptide therapeutics segment and acquiring CDMO capabilities, we are expanding into next-generation therapeutics that align with our commitment to innovation and affordability,” Krishna Prasad Chigurupati, Granules’ chair and managing director, said in the company's release. Granules and Senn have already been working together to develop a pair of GLP-1-based active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and they expect to add more peptide-based APIs to their portfolio in the future with the help of Senn’s R&D capabilities.The Granules news comes amid a boom in the industry's peptide manufacturing efforts. In mid-February, German CDMO Axplora revealed a 50-million-euro upgrade at its production facility in Mourenx, France, designed to boost overall peptide purification strength and support the development of new biologic therapies, including GLP-1 drugs to treat diabetes and obesity. A month ago, the research and CDMO group BioDuro debuted a new peptide synthesis production facility at its campus in the Zhangjiang tech center in Shanghai.And in September, South Korea’s SK pharmteco said it would shell out $260 million to build out its capacity to make small-molecules and peptides at what would be the CDMO’s fifth manufacturing facility in its home country.

Axplora's expansion will be funded by a customer, a spokesperson said. Axplora, a German CDMO that specializes in API small molecule and ADC production, will upgrade its manufacturing facility in Mourenx, France, with the help of an unnamed customer.The €50 million project will boost Axplora’s overall peptide purification strength and support the development of new biologic therapies, including GLP-1 drugs to treat diabetes and obesity, the company said in a Feb. 12 press release.Construction on the expansion is expected to begin immediately and be ready for Biologic License Application status with the FDA by May 2025. The company, which previously operated under the name Novasep, added that it expects to be manufacturing approved GLP-1 therapies in 2026.After Axplora issued its press release, a spokesperson for the company clarified that the investment "is being made by the customer, rather than Axplora itself."The company, which traces its origins back to 1995, took on the Axplora moniker after Novasep and PharmaZell merged in 2022.A year earlier, Novasep pumped €4 million ($4.83 million at the time) to boost capacity to produce highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs) at its facility located in Le Mans, France.  Axplora operates ten sites across Europe, India and the U.S., according to its website, employing 2,400 people around the globe.