Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office has launched its Biotherapeutics Development Unit (BDU) with the manufacture of its first product - an antibody for treating a range of cancers.
The BDU will make experimental medicine and biological research products such as antibodies, which can target cancer cells in a more specific way than traditional chemotherapy treatments.
These medicines will then be taken straight into early clinical trials of patients with cancer across the UK.
The first product to be manufactured in the new unit is an antibody designed to supercharge the body's immune system to fight cancer - called Chi Lob 7/4.
The antibody was discovered by scientists at the University of Southampton and is currently being tested in a phase I clinical trial to treat cancer patients who are no longer responding to conventional treatment.
The antibody recognises and sticks to a cell-surface receptor, called CD40, which appears on the surface of both cancer cells and cells of the immune system.
Once the antibody sticks to the target it gives the signal for the immune system to recognise the cancer cell as a faulty cell and destroy it.
Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office takes drugs through development from discoveries in the laboratory to early clinical phase trials.
It includes the Cancer Research UK Formulation Unit in Glasgow, which develops experimental medicines in tablet and injection form to be used in clinical trials.
The BDU will develop larger more complex medicines such as vaccines and antibodies.
'The ability to produce our own medicines - such as vaccines - will enable us to work more quickly towards the goals we have set to improve the treatment and survival of cancer patients,' said Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive.
