Lonza expands UK facility, bio business reports growth
pharmafile | April 13, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Benlysta, Lonza, Slough, manufacturing
Swiss contract manufacturer and fine chemicals company Lonza has said it plans to expand its biopharmaceutical production unit in Slough, UK, via a £16 million ($26m) investment programme.
At the heart of the expansion is a 6,000 sq. m. building which will house fermentation and purification suites, a process development laboratory and warehousing. It is due to be completed by the end of 2012.
The Slough unit currently covers around 23,000 sq. m. and employs around 650 staff, principally involved in the small-scale, GMP manufacturing of recombinant therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies using mammalian cell culture, as well as process R&D. It also provides some ongoing commercial supply of marketed products.
Gordon Bates, the head of the Slough facility, said the planned investment is aligned with the company’s strategic direction for the site and will further enhance its operational capability.
“We are delighted with the investment and eager to push on and realise the benefits of the investment for both our employees and our customers,” he said.
The investment programme in the UK ties in with a general upswing in the fortunes of Lonza’s biologics manufacturing network across the group, which has suffered in recent years from excess capacity caused by delayed and cancelled projects among biopharma clients, resulting from reworked R&D portfolios or insufficient access to funding.
In a just-released report on its first quarter trading, Lonza notes that capacity utilisation was at a “high level in biological custom manufacturing”, although higher sales are being offset by unfavourable exchange rates and raw material price increases.
“Growth projects in Slough and Singapore are on track while our pipeline in emerging markets is increasing due to our business development activities,” said Lonza chief executive Stefan Borgas.
New contracts with Athera and Enobia, as well as the approval in the USA of Human Genome Sciences/GlaxoSmithkline’s lupus treatment Benlysta (belimumab), have boosted the biologics manufacturing division.
Lonza is the commercial-scale manufacturing partner for Benlysta under the terms of an agreement signed last summer.
Phil Taylor
Related Content
CARBOGEN AMCIS manufacturing license advances services in China
Swiss pharma manufacturing company, CARBOGEN AMCIS, has announced that its facility in Shanghai, China, has …
Meribel Pharma Solutions launches to take pharma services to new heights
Meribel Pharma Solutions, a new mid-sized contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), has officially launched …
Bend Bioscience adds commercial spray drying facility to Georgia site
Bend Bioscience has announced the addition of a commercial-scale spray dryer and a Gerteis dry …
