Axplora leverages ADC investments, bolsters offerings to target fast-growing modality

To support the growth of global pipelines, contract development and manufacturing organization Axplora is investing in its existing infrastructure to better meet the needs of biotechnology and pharmaceutical customers targeting the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) market.   

Axplora manufactures six of the 14 commercial ADCs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to CEO Martin Meeson, who took the helm two years ago. The company’s recent investment includes a multimillion-euro lyophilization expansion at its Le Mans, France site, which is aimed at strengthening the CDMO’s integrated ADC manufacturing platform to handle monoclonal antibodies armed with cytotoxic payloads.  

“We’ve added lyophilization,” Meeson told Pharma Manufacturing. “Increasingly, we’ve seen our partners wanting that flexibility.”

The Le Mans site is one of the world’s leading facilities for ADC and cytotoxic drug manufacturing, according to Meeson, which will bring commercial freeze-drying capabilities online starting in early 2027 complementing existing research and development operations. The expansion supports the isolation and handling of complex payload and linker intermediates where stability and safe handling are critical.

As a class of targeted therapeutics, ADCs are complex molecules comprised of a monoclonal antibody conjugated to a cytotoxic payload. The investment in the Le Mans site is meant to strengthen Axplora’s ability to reduce complexity and risk for its customers, while supporting the rapid progression of ADC programs.

“The complexity of the drugs is growing, particularly over the last 12 to 24 months — the more complex the molecule is, the more targeted it tends to be,” Meeson said. “It brings a level of responsiveness to clients and just makes their lives easier, which is ultimately what we’re trying to do.”   

ADC growth and challenges

The Le Mans facility provides payload, linker, and drug substance capabilities for manufacturing ADCs, which are one of the fastest-growing modalities in oncology. GlobalData forecasts that the ADC market size is growing at a compound annual growth rate of more than 25% and is expected to reach $65.2 billion in sales in 2031, with 11 products slated to have blockbuster status this year.

While most ADCs to date have been developed and used for the treatment of cancer, they are also under development for a range of other diseases, according to GlobalData. At the same time, the firm noted that early-stage drugs dominate the pipeline and the “current limited number of marketed ADCs reflects the inherent scientific and clinical complexity.”

With more than 600 ADCs in the industry currently in development and clinical timelines speeding up, Axplora’s investment in the Le Mans site is meant to increase development and analytical throughput, while reducing technology transfer complexity and compressing timelines from early development to commercial production.

“We need to be really fast to clinic,” Meeson said. “We want to service those clinical pipelines efficiently with the flexibility to handle ever-changing molecules.”

Meeson contends that Axplora has more than 20 years of experience for both established and emerging payload classes, including auristatins, maytansines, pyrrolobenzodiazepines, and tecans. In 2025, the company expanded commercial ADC payload production at its Le Mans site including a GMP-compliant payload manufacturing workshop — leveraging three Hastelloy reactors — designed to enhance capacity and meet the industry’s growing demand for ADCs.

The expanded Le Mans site, part of the France 2030 national program to encourage the development of biopharmaceuticals in the country, includes six ADC workshops — two for clinical payload-linker production, two for commercial payloads, and two for bioconjugation — supported by high-performance chromatography purification lines.

“We can do payload, linker, bioconjugation, and all the associated testing,” Meeson said. “There’s not many places in the world — certainly only a couple of places in Europe — that truly have those capabilities in one site.”