Lonza in joint venture to develop biotherapeutic products

Singapore

SWISS biotech company Lonza has entered into an equal joint venture (JV) with Danish bioscience company Chr Hansen Holding to develop live biotherapeutic products (LBP) for pharma and biotech customers.

The phased investment of about 90 million euros (S$136.6 million) will be shared equally between the partners over three years.

The joint venture targets the emerging pre-clinical and clinical supply industry for LBP.

Given the current number of ongoing pre-clinical to phase III drug trials, the clinical supply industry globally is estimated to reach 150-200 million euros by 2025. By 2035, the combined clinical and commercial supply industry is estimated to exceed one billion euros, said Lonza in a stock market filing on Wednesday.

Lonza has a primary listing in Switzerland and a secondary listing in Singapore.

The company said this is the first contract development and manufacturing partner (CDMO) globally to provide a full supply chain that offers manufacturing of bacteria strains for therapeutic use.

In pharmaceuticals, CDMOs provide contract services from drug development to manufacturing.

The project will encompass handling, characterising, formulating, manufacturing and encapsulating strict anaerobe bacteria. Lonza said having these capabilities under one roof will allow seamless exchanges between drug substance and drug product activities, decrease development timelines and increase the chances of getting the results right the first time.

Marc Funk, CEO, Lonza Group, said: "We understand the complexities of bringing pharmaceuticals to market, including the evolving regulatory environment, and will offer unique development and pharma-grade manufacturing that addresses an unmet need in the industry, enabling customers to deliver therapies for patients."

The joint venture will upgrade existing facilities in Horsholm, Denmark, and equip new facilities in Basel, Switzerland to serve pre-clinical to phase II projects, said Lonza. Further facilities for phase III and commercial manufacturing will be developed as the pipeline matures.

An initial 45 million euros will be spent, with an additional 45 million euros tagged on once customer demand for clinical phase three and commercial supply is confirmed, said the company. The joint venture is expected to be largely self-funding after the production set-up has been established.