Big contract manufacturer Lonza is backtracking in the drug product lifecycle to expand its franchise. The Swiss company has launched a process development and material supply service designed for the discovery and early development market.
The move is further evidence of what appears to be a trend in the making of CMOs expanding to become CDMOs, adding drug development services to their manufacturing offerings. It's not a particularly new concept, but one that is becoming more common.
The Lonza service is called Light Path. It involves the production of milligram to kilogram quantities of biologics--mammalian- and microorganism-based. Its target is drugmakers at the early stages of development, a long way from the company's sweet spot of making APIs and finished drug products.
Yet the service offering fits with the company's intent to provide services spanning R&D through finished product manufacturing.
Light Path is available at Lonza's biologics development sites in Slough and Cambridge, U.K.; Hopkinton, MA; Tuas, Singapore; and Visp, Switzerland.
- here's the story
- see the Lonza announcement