Lonza expands Solid Form Services with their Facility in Oregon

Lonza facility in Bend, Oregon, USA

Lonza enhances their capabilities in small molecules by expanding their facility in Bend, Oregon, USA to assist small biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in this area. 

The specialised facility, situated in Bend, OR (USA), reached operational level at the end of 2022. This boosted Lonza’s capabilities and increases their ability to meet certain accelerated timelines necessary for the manufacture of more complex molecules. 

The facility now includes refurbished laboratory space dedicated to the support of small and midsize biotech and pharma companies who are working on developing key early-stage compounds. The facility can be used for solid form screening, characterisation of small APIs, and selection and early crystallisation process development. These screening and selection processes are key for all stages of development of compounds, helping to reduce any associated risks and also helping with intellectual property claims. 

Michael Morgen, Head of Advanced Drug Delivery Technologies, Small Molecules, Lonza commented: “With the completion of this expansion at our Bend site, we have successfully established a collaborative, deeply science-based Solid Form Services offering to support customers in advancing compounds to the clinic and beyond. This offering is fully integrated with our upstream drug substance, and downstream drug formulation and drug product development capabilities. We are seeing strong interest from our growing customer portfolio, with many customers bringing multiple compounds and projects to the facility.”

The growth at the new facility includes being stocked with the latest equipment necessary to assist these biotechs and small pharma companies. The lab includes powder and fume hoods, and small scale crystallisation systems. Imaging techniques including spectroscopic, thermal, and a suite of others are all catered for. 

The SFS include the specialist team working at the facility, who have a wealth of experience in mapping solid form landscapes and in the selection and development of salts and polymorphs, which complements nicely the expertise in upstream drug substance and downstream drug product areas that the facility brings. Companies supported by the facility and the adjacent services can make full use of the integrated capabilities across the Lonza portfolio, from drug substance in Nansha, China to micronisation in Monteggio, Italy.