Collaborative innovation centre launched by Lonza in Israel

Lonza has formed a new research and development (R&D) collaborative innovation centre in Israel, which is set to begin operations at the end of the year.

The Lonza Collaborative Innovation Center (CIC) will be near to 1,000 sqm in size and the company anticipates 15–20 new hires for 2018 within the areas of engineering, software and cell/molecular biology.

“Through its growing reputation as a biotech hub, Israel offers Lonza an opportunity to expand our capabilities and bring transformative technologies and offerings to Lonza Pharma & Biotech customers. That's why we chose to establish the Lonza CIC in Israel,” explained Marc Funk, COO for Lonza's Pharma&Biotech segment, who is the chairman of the board of the newly incorporated local entity. “At Lonza we enable our customers to meet some of the greatest challenges in patient treatment. The medicines and research tools of tomorrow are often highly complex, posing new challenges to the way they can be developed and manufactured.”

The centre will include a local dedicated R&D team to collaborate and work with industry and academic experts from the region. Additionally, the company has already put in place memorandums of understanding and conducted talent scouting at Tel Aviv University, Technion R&D Foundation and the Weizmann Institute of Science.

“Lonza strives to work with the brightest talent in house and through collaborations with leading scientists and companies to ensure our position as the leading pharma and biotech CDMO and bioresearch provider,” Funk continued. “We aim to be at the forefront of providing the appropriate innovative technologies in order to manufacture medicines safely and in a timely manner and to deliver the medicines of tomorrow, today.”