Antibody specialist Absolute Antibody Ltd has announced a major new expansion to its site in North East England.

The company opened a production facility in the area just two years after it was founded in Oxford in 2012, and has undergone rapid expansion since then. It now provides custom antibody sequencing, engineering and expression services to leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics companies, as well as academic researchers worldwide.

The latest development has seen Absolute Antibody opening a newly refurbished space at the Wilton Centre in Redcar, where its research and manufacturing operations have been based since 2014. Ian Wilkinson, CSO of Absolute Antibody, explained: “The opening of our manufacturing site in Redcar allowed us to grow our services portfolio, while at the same time keeping costs to a minimum. Our further rapid growth and increase in service and product offerings has resulted in our need for additional facilities, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to expand here at the Wilton Centre.”

The upgraded premises include larger dedicated labs for molecular biology, automation, tissue culture and purification, as well as expanded shipping and storage areas, and have been developed in response to the increased global demand for the company’s products. Dr Nicholas Hutchings, founder and CEO, added: “The new facility supports the continued growth of our company and underlines our commitment to advancing recombinant antibody technology, and serving new and existing customers more efficiently. The Wilton Centre has proven to be an excellent environment for growth and expansion, enabling a significant increase in our laboratory space and antibody production capacity.”

Steve Duffield, Site Director at the Wilton Centre, said: “Absolute Antibody’s expansion is further evidence of an exciting and growing life science sector in Teesside. A combination of factors in the area – the strong pool of talent from regional universities and businesses, excellent quality of life and cost of living, support of local government, and a great working environment at the Wilton Centre – are attracting life science businesses from other UK cluster locations.”

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