In a move to expand its mammalian manufacturing, Swiss CDMO Lonza said it has purchased a clinical-stage site in Hayward, California, from Shire.
The deal, announced this week, is for the 58,000-square-foot Hayward facility that has operated as a multiproduct plant since 1990. Shire inherited the facility last year as part of its $32 billion acquisition of Baxter spinout Baxalta. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
There are more than 100 employees at the plant and they will be given the opportunity to continue in their current jobs, Lonza said.
The acquisition is Lonza’s answer to increased customer demand for clinical-stage manufacturing capacity. With the addition of the Hayward facility, Lonza gets additional cGMP capacity that will supplement its manufacturing plant in Slough, U.K. It’s expected Lonza customer batches will begin next year.
"The acquisition of this site allows our customers greater access to clinical capacity from a U.S. site,” Karen Fallen, a Lonza vice president, said in a statement. “The additional capacity will support the needs of our customers to secure manufacture for their products’ complete lifecycle across Lonza’s global manufacturing network."
Lonza completed its $5.5 billion blockbuster deal to buy U.S.-based contract capsule and drug producer Capsugel from KKR this summer, putting it at the head of the CDMO line. The completion of that deal came on the heels of its June acquisition of Netherlands-based cell manufacturer PharmaCell for an undisclosed sum.
Lonza has forecast it expects to reap about $7.9 billion in annual revenues by 2022, due largely to the Capsugel deal.