Lonza expands partnership with US drugmaker, boosts capacity for ADCs

Contract manufacturing powerhouse Lonza is growing in more ways than one. This week, the Swiss CDMO revealed that it is expanding its capacity to manufacture products for the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) market and that it has expanded the scope of its partnership with a large, yet unnamed, U.S. drugmaker.

As for its ADC expansion, Lonza said it will boost its payload-linker manufacturing capacity at its massive R&D and manufacturing hub in Visp, Switzerland. Without revealing how much it will invest, Lonza said that it will increase its ability to manufacture highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPI) and establish new commercial-scale capabilities to produce ADCs.

The investment will add new capacity within an existing production facility, bringing additional payload-linker production and purification onboard in Visp. The facility is designed for multipurpose use and scale-out, enabling production of a broad range of molecules, with the option to add additional suites as customer demand grows, Lonza said.

“The rapid growth of the ADC market is driving increasing demand for highly complex payload-linkers that require advanced manufacturing capabilities,” Christian Seufert, Lonza’s head of advanced synthesis, said in a release. “Lonza remains committed to investing and further developing its integrated ADC offering. This investment reflects that commitment by expanding our capacity to support this next generation of therapies and enabling our customers to progress efficiently from development to commercial supply.”

The upgrades are expected to be operational in 2028, supporting both clinical and commercial programs and enabling customers to accelerate time-to-market for their ADC therapies, Lonza said.

As for Lonza’s partnership expansion, the upgraded pact tacks on commercial production for two biologics programs, along with an option for two more. 

The collaboration between the companies, which is captured in a range of contracts, has the “potential to deliver a multi-billion cumulative” value in Swiss francs, Lonza said. A billion Swiss francs is roughly equal to $1.24 billion. 

The services included in the partnership will be provided from all of Lonza’s U.S. commercial-scale biologics sites, the company said, complemented by its drug substance and drug development and manufacturing capacities in Europe. The U.S. drugmaker has an evolving portfolio of biologics, with Lonza noting that it has the flexibility and capacity to scale these programs over time, including the transition to commercial manufacturing.   

While many companies in the CDMO industry have struggled in the post-pandemic years, Lonza rebounded, in part, thanks to business conducted at its biologics plant in Vacaville, California, that it purchased from Roche for $1.2 billion in 2024. Last year, Lonza recorded growth of 22% at constant currencies. 

Four months ago, Lonza became a pure-play CDMO with the divestiture of its capsules and health ingredients (CHI) business to private equity fund Lone Star for roughly 2.3 billion Swiss francs ($3 billion). The move allowed Lonza to focus on its three business platforms—biologics, advanced synthesis and specialized modalities.