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Martillac, France Biologics Drug Substance Manufacturing Facility

AbbVie Contract Manufacturing offers mammalian biologics drug substance development and cGMP manufacturing in Martillac, France, near Bordeaux. As a global biopharmaceutical partner, we can support your molecule from pre-clinical development through commercial supply at a single biologics drug substance manufacturing facility.

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Martillac, France Facility Manufacturing Capabilities

Martillac — known within the AbbVie biologics network as MBM — has operated as a contract development and manufacturing site since 1987 and obtained GMP compliance following approval from the French health authority, the Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé (ANSM), in 1995. The site joined AbbVie in 2025, adding European drug substance capacity to AbbVie's biologics and monoclonal antibody manufacturing services.

One Site for Drug Substance, from Pre-Clinical to Commercial

Program teams lose time in two predictable places: the transfer into a clinical manufacturing site, and the transfer out of it when the molecule needs commercial supply. Martillac is built to compress both. Cell banking, process development, pilot production, clinical drug substance and commercial drug substance are delivered from one campus, and clinical and commercial GMP batches run in the same suites at the same 200L and 2,000L scales.

That configuration means a program that establishes its process at Martillac for first-in-human material does not need a second scale-up or a second site qualification to reach commercial supply within that scale range. Process characterization, process performance qualification (PPQ) runs and process validation happen where the clinical batches were made, against the same equipment train and the same quality system.

AbbVie's Martillac, France cGMP Manufacturing Expertise

Development Services

Master cell bank (MCB) and working cell bank (WCB) generation and storage
Clone screening and clonality assessment using Cell Metric and deep-well plate workflows
Upstream process development and optimization using Ambr 150 and Ambr 250 systems, 3L bioreactors and a 200L bioreactor for pilot scale
Downstream purification development, including processing of high-concentration intermediates from purification through formulation
Pilot batch production for toxicology material
Accelerated scale-up model from 1L to 2,000L batch sizes
Approximately 1,900 m² of process and analytical development laboratory space

cGMP Drug Substance Manufacturing

Two GMP manufacturing suites housing upstream (USP) and downstream (DSP) operations
Mobius single-use bioreactors — two 200L and four 2,000L
WAVE bioreactors — four 35L with rocking stirring platform
Total single-use upstream bioreactor capacity of 10,800L
Single-use chromatography and filtration skids, with chromatography columns from 70 mm to 630 mm
Single-use preparation tanks from 10L to 3,000L and mobile clarification from 50L to 3,000L
Clinical GMP drug substance at 200L or 2,000L scale, with flexible clinical resupply
Commercial GMP drug substance at 200L or 2,000L scale
Process validation and PPQ runs supporting late-stage manufacture and Biologics License Application (BLA) submission
Controlled not classified (CNC) and Grade D and Grade C environments

Analytical & Quality Control Services

Approximately 2,100 m² of quality assurance and quality control laboratory space
Analytical method transfer, development and validation
GMP lot release assays and reference standard characterization
Mass spectrometry — intact molecular weight, antibody subunit analysis, peptide mapping, N- and C-terminal sequencing, glycan profiling and higher order structure
Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) — size exclusion, reverse phase, amino acid analysis and glycan profiling
Capillary electrophoresis — purity, protein-related impurities, isoelectric point and charge profile
Cell-based potency and bioassays, binding and kinetic binding assays, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for host cell protein and residual Protein A
Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for process-related impurities
Compendial testing — pH, Karl Fischer titration, osmolarity, protein concentration, appearance, bioburden, endotoxin, sterility and mycoplasma
Viral clearance, stress studies, stability testing and storage, and in-process control

Some specialized testing — including cell bank testing and viral testing — is delivered through qualified partners rather than on site. We identify which assays sit where during transfer planning, so your analytical strategy is settled before the first GMP batch.

Tech Transfer & Regulatory Support

Martillac operates a de-risked tech transfer program aligned to International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) standards. Transfers begin with gap analysis and risk evaluation so the process fit is understood against the site's equipment train before documentation is drafted, not after. That approach is the same discipline AbbVie applies across its own portfolio and is described in more detail in our guidance on choosing a partner for your tech transfer.

Regulatory and CMC support runs the length of the molecule lifecycle, from MCB through commercial manufacturing and lifecycle management, including documentation support for Investigational New Drug (IND), Investigational Medicinal Product Dossier (IMPD) and BLA.

Martillac (MBM) Capabilities

The A7 GMP drug substance building launched in 2022, with first GMP use in May 2023. It houses two manufacturing suites: the upstream side includes two cell amplification rooms, a production room with N-1 bioreactors and a production room with the production bioreactor and harvest equipment; the downstream side includes pre-viral and post-viral purification rooms, a conditioning area for filling and an adjoining cold room. On-site GMP warehousing, sampling and dispensing, and cell bank and sample storage sit alongside the manufacturing and laboratory buildings.

AbbVie Biologics Manufacturing Network

Martillac is one of three drug substance sites in the AbbVie biologics network, alongside AbbVie Bioresearch Center in Worcester, Massachusetts and AbbVie's large molecule site in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico.

Together the network provides 24/7 manufacturing with total drug substance capacity of 86,000 L, is licensed for eight approved commercial biologics and carries more than 35 years of validated clinical and commercial drug substance experience. For programs that outgrow 2,000L single-use, that network provides a defined path to 3,000L, 6,000L and 12,000L stainless steel trains without leaving one quality and operational system. AbbVie Contract Manufacturing overall brings more than 40 years of CMO experience, 14 global manufacturing sites engaged in contract manufacturing and commercial approvals in more than 180 countries.