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Hopes and commitments

for our tomorrow

ur readers certainly dont need me to introduce

Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, as well as SAFC
Commercial, its custom manufacturing services
business unit. Everybody knows about this global leader in
life sciences. Yet, one thing is to read about something, while
seeing it in person, meeting faces, listening to the people that
make this company a global player is totally different. Ive just
come back from a press event at the home base of SigmaAldrich and SAFC in Saint Louis. The press event was held to
announce that SAFC had completed the expansion of its
St. Louis facility to support commercial-scale antibody drug
conjugate (ADC) manufacturing. The facility is in final validation
and expected to go online as planned in the third quarter of
2015. Once validated, customers will benefit from working with
a single supplier from discovery to commercialization.
Designed to meet SafeBridge category 4 compound
handling to safely accommodate usage of highly-active
compounds, the St. Louis expansion creates commercialscale manufacturing capacity for ADCs and other targeted
therapies. The expanded capabilities in St. Louis are further
enhanced by expanded commercial capacity for highlyactive manufacturing and storage at the companys Madison,
Wis. facility. SAFCs offers include cell-line engineering and
media, linkers and payloads, along with significant conjugation
expertise using both highly-active and non-potent compounds.
The St. Louis expansion complements other recent additions
in ADC capabilities, including the announcement of SAFCs
ADC ExpressSM service for preclinical ADC and bioconjugation
services, and a collaboration with industry leader Baxter
BioPharma Solutions for formulation and fill/finish services.
As always, along with spoken words, also unspoken words
count. Meaning that what counts is the manner and true
intention words are spoken with. Anyone working for a
company, whatever company this is, is an ambassador for

that company, a spokesperson, a witness of the work it carries

out. We, the press, have the task of amplifying these words,
broadcasting what we receive to the larger audience. This
is why I titled this article Hopes and commitment for our
tomorrow, because this is what Ive received and taken home
from this press event.
The world of chemistry/biochemistry is often seen as something
distant, unapproachable. Yet, chemistry couldnt be closer. It
provides us with tools to face health issues and our everyday life.
A few words by Gilles Cottier, President of SAFC
The ADC market is a growing market, and is expected to
expand over the next few years. This strategic expansion is the
latest in a series of enhancements in our ADC offering designed
to support this important therapeutic area and to help our
customers to seamlessly scale ADC production from preclinical
to commercial phases. Our offer can bring customers
molecules to the clinic faster, with the ease of working with
one supplier from start to finish. With the added support
of our recently launched ADC Express service, we believe
SAFC presents the most comprehensive offer in the contract
manufacturing market.
In a few words: better, cheaper, safer and faster, are
the key-words of this new investment.
Three contributions
Three presentations given at the press event expanded and
completed Cottiers words.
Sunitha Baskaran, VP of R&D and Marketing on a Manhattan
Project for the life sciences, recalled the war on Cancer. In
1975 an announcement was given that the war against cancer
would have been won, yet the battle is still underway today
and is fierce. Its a war that has been going on ever since, with

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references to it that date back to 1500 B.C., at the time of the

ancient Romans. Obviously known by other names, tumors were
anyway already being treated with the remedies of that time.
Prevention has always had an important role, which in recent
years has triggered a strong campaign against smoking that
has led to a significant reduction of lung cancer.
The number of patients suffering from stomach cancer has
also declined thanks to the improvement of environmental,
housing and employment conditions, to the reduction of salt
in food preservation, thus the increased availability of fresh
food, resulting in improved eating habits.
Unfortunately, when cancer with metastases in progress is
diagnosed, it is often too late and the remedies are much
more invasive and difficult to bear: chemotherapy kills
many cells, not just cancer cells. ADCs have improved this
because you can more accurately target
just the cells that actually need
to be eliminated. Indeed, we
have today new technologies
available that give renewed
hope to win this tough battle
and this is very important
news.
To stress the importance of it,
Sunitha ended her presentation
with a final slide that simply
showed the word HOPE.
Cynthia Wooge, Global Strategic Marketing Director on the
technology of targeted treatments, gave a presentation that
also provided a particular piece of personal information. Cynthia
told the audience that when it came to deciding what job she
wanted to do, her willingness to help others concretely drew her
towards being a doctor. On second thought, she reckoned being
a doctor would have allowed her to help many people, yet
dedicating her life to research and development probably would
have helped many more. Good thinking! When we think of the
huge number of diseases affecting millions of people all over the
world, of cancer, of infectious diseases - the Ebola emergency is
still not over, just to name one crisis, we can well understand the
importance of working in research, as well as appreciating how
such a strong willingness to aid the others can be a valuable and
indispensable resource in a company like Sigma Aldrich.
Weve referred to ADCs, the next-generation therapeutics, and
the benefits they carry earlier on in this article.

Chimica Oggi - Chemistry Today - vol. 33(3) May/June 2015

Every ADC has around 30 sub-products, which tells a great deal

about the intense R&D work that ADC manufacturing carries
and which we had the opportunity to witness while being
showed around the production plant and R&D premises.
After Cynthias presentation, Matt Hanson, Director of
Marketing on high complexity introduced the audience to ADC
ExpressSM preclinical development services within its Contract
Manufacturing Services portfolio. This ADC offering includes
rapid preparation of development grade conjugate constructs
for clients to use in their target molecule identification.
I was referring earlier to our visit to the new Saint Louis site,
the Cherokee Facility (thanks to Kelly Foster, Manufacturing
Director at Sigma-Aldrich for the warm welcome and for
showing us around) and then to the Laclede Facility (for which
we thank Patrick (Pat) Sullivan, VP of R&D for Sigma-Aldrich).
These two visits showed us the very facilities where synthesis
and analysis are carried out. It was a key moment of the entire
press event, giving us the chance to truly experience and
become well aware of the companys commitment in offering
something so important for everyones future.
Thank you to:
Besides the people Ive mentioned above, we wish to say
thank you to Kevin Ray, R&D Manager at Sigma-Aldrich, Mike
Bienkowski, Process & Analytical Development Manager; and
also to all the Lauras, Kens, Davids, Marions and many other of
their colleagues weve met in the companys laboratories.
A special thought goes to Beth Willers and Kristi Fortschneider
which have organised this wonderful press event, and who
have been so effective, friendly and kind.
Thank you to everyone in Sigma Aldrich for letting me go back
home with renewed hope. Keep up the good work! In the end,
its all about letting hope drive us to effectively commit through
passion and professionalism to the work we do, as the Sigma
Aldrich people have shown so clearly. Hope is what you trigger
in anyone looking at you, at the work you carry on to better
our lives. And we all long for hope. I mean this as a person who
believes in it, rather than a journalist reporting on it.

SILVANA MAINI
Chimica Oggi - Chemistry Today (TKS Publisher)

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