Lonza enters into strategic alliance with UCB

13/05/05 Lonza and UCB have signed a long-term supply agreement, under which Lonza will manufacture PEGylated antibody fragment based bulk actives for UCB. Lonza is building a commercial scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Visp, Switzerland. The facility will contain two production trains with a fermentation capacity of 15,000 litres each, which will be operational starting in the second half of 2006. It will allow for conversion to manufacturing of different biopharmaceutical products and will be flexible enough to accommodate various processes.

Under the terms of the agreement UCB has reserved a fixed annual manufacturing capacity for recombinant microbial products, covering the period 2006 – 2012 with an extension option. The agreement allows UCB flexibility in scheduling to meet the clinical and commercial timelines for its portfolio of PEGylated antibody fragment based products.

“The investment underscores Lonza’s track record as a biopharmaceutical custom manufacturer. This partnership with UCB represents a key milestone for the Lonza Group. We are now established as the leading custom manufacturing organization in both mammalian and microbial biopharmaceuticals, both in large and small scale”, said Stefan Borgas, CEO of Lonza Group Ltd.

“This alliance offers us a solid production capacity as well as access to state-of-the art know how and expertise in bio-manufacturing, essential for the successful implementation of our biopharmaceutical programs. Such long-term engagement clearly highlights UCB’s commitment towards its proprietary technology for the production of high affinity antibody fragments in a microbial expression system. The leading product using this technology, Cimzia (CDP870), is currently undergoing in a large Phase III program in Crohn’s disease and in rheumatoid arthritis,” commented Roch Doliveux, CEO of UCB.