Northway Biotech has opened a €61m cell therapy and personalised medicine CDMO facility in Vilnius, Lithuania, expanding its development and manufacturing capabilities for advanced therapies.
The 3500 sqm centre, developed as part of the BIO CITY III campus, is described by Northway as the first dedicated innovative cell therapy and personalised medicine centre of its kind in the Baltic States.
The facility adds to Northway Biotech’s existing CDMO capabilities spanning mammalian and microbial biologics, gene therapy and cell-based technologies.
It will provide development and cGMP manufacturing services to biotech and pharma companies, university hospitals and research institutions, with the company confirming that its first customer programmes and contracts are already in place.
Up to 20 independent manufacturing lines
The new centre features up to 20 independent cGMP-compliant manufacturing lines, alongside quality control laboratories, advanced cleanroom systems and segregated manufacturing infrastructure.
The design is intended to allow multiple cell-based products and processes to be manufactured in parallel while maintaining controls around product identity, quality, traceability and contamination.
Northway said the facility will support autologous and allogeneic cell therapies, personalised therapeutic vaccines, regenerative medicine applications and 3D human tissue technologies.
The manufacturing model presents particular challenges for personalised medicines, where production can be dedicated to an individual patient rather than serving a large patient population through a conventional batch manufacturing process.
Prof Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, founder of Northway Group, said the investment represented the scaling of 15 years of experience in stem cell research, cell-based technologies and cGMP environments.
Fifteen years ago, we did not have a €61 million centre — we had people and ambition. Over the years, we have built practical experience, grown our team and advanced our cell technology capabilities.
The centre will also support technologies including patient immune-cell modification for cancer therapies, as well as 3D human tissue models for drug development and regenerative medicine research.
Strengthening Lithuania’s life sciences sector
The facility is expected to bring together around 100 life sciences professionals and forms part of Lithuania’s wider ambition to increase the contribution of its life sciences sector to 5% of GDP by 2030.
The €61m project has been financed through private investment and a loan from Lithuania’s national development bank ILTE under its Billion for Business initiative.
The new site forms the third stage of Northway’s BIO CITY ecosystem.
BIO CITY I hosts the company’s mammalian and microbial biologics development and manufacturing operations in Vilnius and Boston, while BIO CITY II focuses on gene therapy.
BIO CITY III adds dedicated cell therapy and personalised medicine manufacturing capacity, strengthening Northway Biotech’s integrated CDMO offering across biologics and advanced therapies.
