Lonza opens collaborative centre for manufacturing in Israel

Swiss multinational, Lonza Pharma & Biotech has opened its Collaborative Innovation Centre (CIC) in Israel to help accelerate new therapies and manufacturing practices.

Based in the Haifa Life Science Park, the facility includes lab space equipped with bioprocessing and analytical equipment which will be available to partners as a test site for new ideas and technology. More so, funding and in-house expertise from Lonza will be available for collaborative research into a range of biopharma areas.

Lonza has already signed up with a selection of institutions that are working on research projects in three key areas, including synthetic biology, gene therapies and data acquisition.

Synthetic biology and expression systems can scale up increasingly complex protein-based constructs currently in early stage pipelines. Lonza is working on expanding its GS gene expression system to develop solutions for hard-to-express proteins and new molecular formats.

Whilst high numbers cell and gene therapies are being commercialised, manufacturing technology still remains relatively immature. Lonza is hoping to work it local partners, teaching hospitals and academic institutions to increase patient access for these therapies.

Within the CIC, Lonza will use its expertise in sensor technology and big data handling to develop better in-line testing and predictive analytics to optimise and control bioprocesses.

“Israel has established itself as a point of convergence for digital technologies, engineering and life sciences, providing new solutions for healthcare in particular,” said Marc Funk, COO Lonza Pharma & Biotech. “We want to expand this potential to reimagine the development and manufacturing of future medicines by working with academic institutions, teaching hospitals and start-ups.”

One partner Lonza is working with is the Chaim Sheba Medical Centre, a leader in the field of CAR-T therapies. Lonza and Sheba are working on evaluating and testing a patient-scale, closed and automated cell-therapy manufacturing system.

"Advanced autologous cell therapies are growing to become a major part of future medicine. High-quality manufacturing at point-of-care, is a key challenge in making these applicable,” said Dr Elad Jacoby, Sheba Medical Centre.

“We have treated more than 60 children and young adults with leukaemia and lymphoma with CAR-T cells, which makes Sheba Medical Centre the ideal place to help drive new technologies that could extend treatment to even more young people," he added. "The collaboration with Lonza will enable us to develop a growing platform for production of CAR-T and other cell therapies.”