WuXi XDC Established as New CDMO

WuXi Biologics reports that a joint venture company named WuXi XDC was established to provide end-to-end contract development and manufacturing of bioconjugates. including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), with Jimmy (Jincai), PhD, serving as CEO.

WuXi Biologics and WuXi STA will make capital contributions of $120 million and $80 million, respectively, to WuXi XDC, which will be owned by WuXi Biologics for 60% and WuXi STA for 40%.

As a result, WuXi XDC will become a non-wholly owned subsidiary of WuXi Biologics, providing services for development and manufacturing of antibodies and other biologics, chemical payloads and linkers, and bioconjugated drug substances (DS) and drug products (DP).

“Bioconjugates have recently emerged as an exciting therapeutic modality to address unmet medical needs. We’re excited about establishing WuXi XDC, a dedicated end-to-end bioconjugate CDMO which will combine the world-class capacities and capabilities of both WuXi Biologics and WuXi STA to provide a superior one-stop service for global partners in an effort to expedite development and lower costs,” said Chris Chen, PhD, CEO of WuXi Biologics and chairman of WuXi XDC.

“Many ADC drug development companies face complex global supply chain and project management challenges with multiple contract partners to handle antibody, payload, linker, and conjugations,” added Minzhang Chen, PhD, chairman of WuXi STA. “In the past years, WuXi STA worked closely with WuXi Biologics on ADC therapeutics as well as other novel bioconjugates to provide our customers an expedited development pathway.

“Now with the initiative of WuXi XDC, we will further combine industry leading resources from both WuXi STA and WuXi Biologics, empowering more partners with a further optimized bioconjugates development and manufacture platform to launch their novel therapeutics faster to market for the benefit of global patients.”