US drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb and Swiss fine and specialty chemicals specialist Lonza have announced a multi-year expansion of their existing biologics manufacturing agreement.

The contract extension will include the production of commercial quantities of a second Bristol-Myers Squibb biologic medicine at Lonza's mammalian manufacturing facility in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the US.

Biologics are an integral part of Bristol-Myers Squibb's specialty care portfolio and R&D pipeline. The company has been collaborating with Lonza since 2003 to produce commercial supplies of a biologics medicine marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb worldwide.

Currently, Lonza also produces clinical supplies of an investigational biologics medicine for its US partner.

"Our expanded relationship with Lonza is an important example of our global manufacturing strategy to meet anticipated demand for our commercial biologics portfolio and prepare to bring our late-stage clinical assets to patients by supplementing our in-house manufacturing capabilities," said Lou Schmukler, president, global manufacturing & supply at Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Lonza operates development and manufacturing facilities offering expression systems and established platform processes for streamlined scale-up throughout the clinical pipeline. In addition to Portsmouth, the Swiss company has three additional clinical-to-commercial mammalian production facilities in Tuas, Singapore, Porrino, Spain, and Slough, UK.