Lonza to acquire biologics site in Vacaville, US from Roche for $1.2bn
Betsy Goodfellow | March 20, 2024 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Lonza, Pharmacy, Roche, biologics, facility, manufacturing
Lonza has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the Genentech large-scale biologics site based in Vacaville, California, US from Roche for $1.2bn.
The acquisition is intended to increase the company’s large-scale biologics manufacturing capacity, with the intention of meeting the demand for commercial mammalian contract manufacturing from customers with existing commercial products and molecules currently in development.
The Vacaville facility is one of the largest biologics manufacturing sites worldwide, based on volume, with a total bioreactor capacity of approximately 330,000 litres.
It is expected that around 750 current Genentech employees will be offered employment by Lonza following the acquisition of the site.
Lonza is expected to invest CHF 500m in additional CAPEX to ‘upgrade the Vacaville, US, facility and enhance capabilities to satisfy demand for the next generation of mammalian biologics therapies’, according to the company’s press release.
Jean-Christophe Hyvert, president of Biologics at Lonza, commented: “The Vacaville site is a highly valuable strategic acquisition that will make capacity immediately available for our customers and unlock future growth for our Biologics division. It will support us in providing a commercialisation path to existing customers and incremental large-scale commercial capacity to our partners. We have deep and long-standing industrial expertise in delivering commercial scale manufacturing services for our customers’ therapies. In combining this with the strong legacy of the Vacaville facility, its highly skilled colleague community and its proven track record on quality, we are excited to take our leading large-scale mammalian offering to its next chapter of growth.”
Betsy Goodfellow
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