Lonza to establish cell and gene therapy centres of excellence

Integrated solutions provider, Lonza, has announced it will be establishing centres of excellence for cell and gene therapy to support and accelerate its growth in this area.

These centres will also include company sites that are already serving customers and their patients with cell and gene therapy technologies to further improve support. The Pearland (Texas) site and that in Geleen/Maastricht (The Netherlands) will offer a fully integrated range of cell- and gene-therapy services including process and analytical development, clinical product supply and commercial product supply. Lonza’s sites in Portsmouth (New Hampshire) and Singapore will serve both as clinical and commercial manufacturing sites.

Furthermore, the company will move the cell-therapy operations out of its Walkersville (Maryland) site, which will become entirely focused on the bioscience solutions business.

“This move is being made to further facilitate the development and transition to commercial production for Lonza customers who are using, or seeking to use, our cell- and gene-therapy services,” said Marc Funk, COO Lonza Pharma & Biotech. “We continue to develop sustainable solutions for our customers, whose patients can ultimately benefit from the latest science and technologies in this sector. These therapies are transforming the way patients are treated.”

“The refined structure of Lonza’s cell- and gene-therapy business will provide opportunities for customers, patients and employees for both the short- and long-term,” said Andreas Weiler, head of the Emerging Technologies business unit that manages Lonza's cell- and gene-therapy offerings. “Our combined offerings provide accelerated market readiness, advanced technologies, flexible business models and global locations so that customers can access the depth and breadth of solutions they need in this fast-moving area of novel and innovative medicines.”