Swiss CDMO giant Lonza, which has been on a growth spurt around the world, is now planning more improvements to expand production capabilities in its own backyard.
The Basel-based company said it will invest an unspecified amount of money into expanding its Stein, Switzerland, facility by adding an additional aseptic flexible filling line for clinical drug supplies. The project will support liquid and lyophilized and vial filling processing, cartridges and prefilled syringes.
With the investment, the Stein facility will be able to process various drug modalities, including monoclonal antibodies, bioconjugates, viral vectors and other gene therapy products, the company says. As part of the project, Lonza will expand its Drug Product Services operation at Stücki Technologiepark in Basel.
The project is expected to wrap up sometime in 2023. The expansion will add 70 new positions at the Stein facility.
The expansion comes right on the heels of another investment. In August, Lonza said it was adding a new fill-finish line at its biologics facility in Guangzhou, China, that opened earlier this year. The company also has a site in Nansha, China, which produces small-molecule APIs, as well as a facility in Suzhou, China, which manufactures drug capsules and microbial control solutions.
News of the Guangzhou expansion followed a May announcement by Lonza that the company would spend $935 million to build mammalian facilities at sites in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Visp, Switzerland.