As part of its Ibex Dedicate model, Lonza will add facilities totaling 1,500 m² of active manufacturing space, which will offer quality control labs, logistics and other central services that the CDMO said will allow for faster ramp-up times, assured delivery and high performance.

The high through-put suites will be able to handle highly potent materials for cancer therapies, initially manufacturing two treatments. The dedicated facility is expected to start operations from the end of 2022, employing about 200 staff.

“Bioconjugates represent an exciting class of molecules that are proving their worth and making a real difference to patients suffering from diseases such as cancer,” said Lonza CEO Pierre-Alain Ruffieux. “From a manufacturing point of view, antibody-drug conjugates are challenging to produce, and we will be ensuring that our partner can de-risk supply and scale-up rapidly at this crucial moment of commercialization.”

Last month, Lonza announced it had also inaugurated the first of two planned state-of-the-art, highly-potent API (HPAPI) suites for ADC drug-linker (payload) manufacturing at Visp. The first suite went into operation in March and the second is due to become available early in 2021.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist