Lonza expands in Singapore and collaborates with Morphotek

Published: 20-May-2009
Media Research & Development

Lonza Group is expanding its cell therapy business with new facility in Singapore


Lonza Group is expanding its cell therapy business with the construction of a new facility in Singapore and has announced a manufacturing services agreement with Morphotek.

The new plant will be located adjacent to the company's large-scale mammalian manufacturing facility at Tuas Biomedical Park. The total investment for the first phase will be approximately CHF30m (Euro 20m). The company said it is a next step in fulfilling its strategy to expand capacity globally and its presence in Asia.

"Cell therapy is expected to be one of the most important innovation drivers of modern medicine and this new facility reinforces Lonza's leading position as a custom manufacturer of cellular therapeutics," said Lonza chief executive Stefan Borgas. "The facility will operate with cutting-edge technologies and a skilled labour force, allowing it readily to meet the needs of a broad range of customers and address the growing global demand for cell therapies."

Construction will begin early in 2010 and the facility is expected to begin manufacturing therapies in the first two suites by mid-2011.

Lonza's manufacturing services agreement with Morphotek, a subsidiary of Eisai Corporation of North America, will support the development and manufacturing of a subset of antibodies in Morphotek's therapeutic antibody pipeline. The agreement will reserve capacity for commercial manufacturing of Morphotek's lead compound farletuzumab (also known as MORAb-003), which recently entered Phase III clinical trials for ovarian cancer under a Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) agreement with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The collaboration already encompasses several other monoclonal antibodies currently in clinical or preclinical development.

"Lonza is an ideal partner and collaborator on this project,. said Philip Sass, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Morphotek. "Based on our working experience, we are confident that Lonza will meet our production, quality goals and timelines for our antibody programmes."

Morphotek develops optimised antibodies for therapeutic applications and high-titre manufacturing cell lines.

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