Swiss-based Lonza is working with GE Healthcare, a General Electric subsidiary, to establish a biologics facility in Guangzhou, China. The deal will give Lonza a strategic base in China to respond to the country’s growing demand for contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services.

The facility will be part of a larger biomanufacturing initiative between GE Healthcare and Guangzhou Development District (GDD). Lonza signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the GDD on Dec. 10 to take the project forward.

Marc Funk, chief operating officer of Lonza Pharma & Biotech, said the partnership is the ideal way for Lonza to bring its expertise and technology to China, ultimately getting innovative therapies to patients more quickly.

The site will house laboratory space and a KUBio unit, GE Healthcare’s modular, prefabricated biomanufacturing facility, enabling Lonza to offer its suite of antibody development services and manufacture GMP-certified batches by 2020. The KUBio unit will be equipped with GE Healthcare’s single-use biomanufacturing technologies, including 1,000L and 2,000L bioreactors, which will be combined with Lonza’s automation platforms for clinical and early commercial supply.

The laboratories will house Lonza’s platforms for cell-line construction, process development, cell banking and pilot labs. The Basel-based group said it plans to hire and train more than 160 staff at the site.

 “With Lonza coming on site, a hub of biotech is truly taking shape,” said Emmanuel Ligner, president and CEO, GE Healthcare Life Sciences. “This agreement is yet another step in realizing our vision of enabling and supporting manufacturers of all sizes to quickly deploy capacity and meet increasing customer demand for biologics.”

China has been historically underserved by biologics but demand for antibody therapies is expected to grow significantly over the coming years, Lonza said. The company noted that the national rollout of the Marketing Authorization Holder Scheme by 2019 is paving the way for dedicated CDMO services in China.