Roche Glycart

Roche Glycart AG operates as a center of excellence for cancer immunotherapy research and antibody engineering within the Roche Group. The company originated as GlycArt Biotechnology AG, a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, founded in September 2000. Key founders include Dr. Pablo Umaña and Joël Jean-Mairet. Dr. Umaña's doctoral research at Caltech and ETH Zurich on the glycoengineering of antibodies formed the scientific basis for the company's core technology.

In July 2005, Roche acquired GlycArt Biotechnology for approximately 235 million Swiss francs, integrating it into its Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) division. This acquisition was a strategic move for Roche to secure GlycArt's proprietary GlycoMAb® technology and its pipeline of preclinical antibody candidates for oncology. Post-acquisition, the entity became the Roche Innovation Center Zurich, focusing on developing new cancer medicines. The business is centered on research and development, specifically creating new potent antibody-based products to treat cancer.

The company's core offering is its GlycoMAb® technology platform, which modifies the carbohydrate component of therapeutic antibodies to boost their natural cell-killing mechanism, known as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). This glycoengineering process enhances the potency of antibodies, making them more effective at destroying targeted cancer cells. The technology is applicable to various antibody types and can be implemented in standard production cell lines without disrupting productivity. A significant achievement stemming from this technology is the drug Gazyva (obinutuzumab), which in 2013 became the first medicine approved by the FDA under its Breakthrough Therapy designation for treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Since the acquisition, the team has grown from 29 to over 180 employees, all based in Schlieren, Switzerland.

Keywords: cancer immunotherapy, antibody engineering, glycoengineering, GlycoMAb, oncology research, therapeutic antibodies, Roche Innovation Center Zurich, biopharmaceutical R&D, monoclonal antibodies, cancer treatment, drug development, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, obinutuzumab, Gazyva, Pablo Umaña, ETH Zurich spin-off, cancer cell targeted therapy, preclinical development, bioconjugation, protein engineering