CMO Lonza builds in UK for bio business

Lonza is set to invest about $26 million in its Slough, UK, biopharmaceutical site to upgrade capacity. The contract manufacturer is building a 60,000-square-foot building adjacent to existing buildings.

The Slough site currently provides clinical and commercial-scale manufacturing of antibodies and therapeutic proteins. It includes a small-scale pilot plant and production reactors to 2,000 liters. Lonza conducts some development work there as well.  

Lonza says it expects the new building to be completed by the end of the year.

The Swiss company indicated last November that business was growing on both the chemical and biologics sides. It said it had signed multiple new contracts for microbial culture-based manufacturing and was furthering relationships with such companies as GlaxoSmithKline and Human Genome Sciences.

Lonza's ability to generate business and grow existing business is good enough for CEO Stefan Borgas. He indicated this week a lack of interest in buying competitors Siegfried and Bachem. "At the moment there's little imagination there, I think."

- see the Slough story
- here's the November item
- get the Borgas article