Lonza Completes API Expansion in China
Swiss CDMO Lonza has completed a planned laboratory expansion at its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing site at Nansha, China and plans to begin operation on Mar. 22.
The upgrade, which increases the laboratory footprint to 250 m2 is part of plans announced in mid-2021 to extend the capabilities and capacity of development laboratories and kilogram-scale cGMP manufacturing laboratories for clinical supply of highly-potent APIs (HPAPI).
As part of the investment, three 1,000-liter GMP trains with an overall 12 m3 of reactor volume were added to the facility, along with new development and GMP laboratories with capabilities to manufacture small-scale batches of the HPAPIs.
Lonza said earlier that the higher scale capacity will facilitate mid-scale manufacturing to ensure a smoother transition between early-phase and large-scale commercial production and benefit the many global emerging biotechs with which it partners.
HPAPIs, which represent a growing part of the small molecules pipeline with special requirements related to equipment, process safety, containment, and facility design, currently form a large part of Lonza’s small molecule development pipeline and the demand for manufacturing is growing, especially in supporting clinical trials in oncology, the company said.
Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist
