Lonza to expand bioconjugation capabilities at Visp site

CDMO will add two production suites for clinical and commercial supply and extend lab space to double analytical and process development capacity

The new capacity is expected to be fully operational from the first half of 2022.

The manufacturing extension spans approximately 1500m2 and adds 30% additional capacity while an additional support building of 5000m2 will provide space for logistics, storage and other supporting infrastructure.

Lonza said the “highly flexible” setup will enable bioconjugation processes using single-use, stainless steel and hybrid concepts.

In a statement, Stefan Egli, Head Business Unit Bioconjugates, Lonza, said bioconjugation is used to develop a growing pipeline of complex protein therapeutics such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

ADcs are a class of biopharmaceutical drugs specifically designed to target and kill tumour cells while sparing healthy ones.

The CDMO said the expansion complements its recent expansion of customer-specific suites as part of the Ibex Dedicate model.

“In addition, expansions in payload manufacturing capacity and drug product sterile fill and finish will support the increasing development and manufacturing needs for bioconjugates,” the company said.

“Lonza started to offer CDMO services for ADCs back in 2006 and we now manufacture the majority of the currently commercially approved ADCs,” said Iwan Bertholjotti, Director Commercial Development Bioconjugates at Lonza. “The field goes beyond ADC’s and Lonza has the expertise to support customers bringing a range of different bioconjugates to market.”

The CDMO said it has produced over 600 cGMP batches of bioconjugated products for over 60 different projects since 2006.