Lonza said the fill & finish production line at the plant that began operation in Q2 2021, where it expects to deliver its first cGMP batch later this year, will “significantly expand” its capacity, thereby supporting global and domestic customers with supply for clinical trials and commercial batches in China. The project expected to be completed in 2022 will create more than 150 new positions at the Guangzhou site.

The introduction of drug product manufacturing at the site, Lonza said, will provide a combined drug substance and drug product manufacturing service offering, in line with its strategy to provide integrated end-to-end solutions to customers. The sterile, multi-product fill line will support the filling of both liquid and lyophilized products.

To facilitate the installation of the new drug product line, the CDMO also plans to expand the footprint of its global hub at its Basel, Switzerland, home base. Lonza operates the drug product services laboratories as a center of excellence, supporting drug product capabilities across its global network by providing formulation development and process development.

Commenting on the investment, Hong Pan, the company’s general manager for China, said it not only demonstrates Lonza’s commitment to the Chinese market but also marks an important milestone in achieving its long-term ambition of increasing drug product capacity and addressing growing customer demand for an end-to-end drug product solution. “Through the expansion of our services at Lonza Guangzhou, we will have the capability to support our customers with the late-stage clinical trial and commercial development of potentially life-saving treatments," he said.

Peter Droc, head of drug product services, added that the planned expansion at Basel “will be a key enabler to support our integrated drug substance and drug product offering across modalities.”

Lonza Biologics Guangzhou is a multi-product facility for clinical and commercial supply, with capabilities that include single-use bioreactors at 200 L, 1,000 L and 2,000 L and downstream processing equipment. The site will employ the Swiss company’s current GS Xceed platform technology. The CDMO said the facility is capable of producing mammalian cell culture therapeutic proteins including monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, fusion proteins and recombinant enzymes.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist