Lonza to Expand Early Development Services Offering Into North America

Lonza recently announced it will expand its Early Development Services (EDS) offering into North America with a new laboratory in Cambridge, MA. The 17,000-sq-ft facility is scheduled to begin operations in May 2023.

Through its EDS offering, Lonza supports customers in assessing, de-risking, and optimizing biotherapeutic drug candidates to maximize their chances of success. Helping customers identify and mitigate potential issues early in development and before clinical trials reduces failure risks in the drug candidate journey, and potentially accelerates speed to clinic.

The new investment builds on Lonza’s existing EDS offering. With more than 15 years’ experience and more than 1,000 finalized developability profiles, Lonza’s EDS facility in Cambridge (UK) already helps customers to improve the safety and manufacturability of biotherapeutic candidates. Services are provided via a suite of in silico, early non-GMP protein expression and in vitro immunogenicity services. The new facility in Cambridge, MA, will offer the same capabilities, namely early non-GMP expression and in vitro immunosafety assessment services.

Located close to the Boston biotech community, the new facility will extend Lonza’s Early Development Services into the US, primarily serving preclinical stage small- to mid-sized biotech companies in the development of biologic drug candidates. The facility opening will enable Lonza to support customers throughout the product life cycle within its US site network – from early development through to commercialization.

Jean-Christophe Hyvert, President, Biologics, Lonza, said “On average, only one in every thousand molecules succeeds beyond Phase 1 trials. In this environment, early development services are essential in mitigating risks, reducing attrition and improving the quality and safety of biologic treatments. We have an established track record in supporting customers through the complex early stages of drug development and our new EDS facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts will support this offering in North America.”

Yvette Stallwood, Head of Early Development Services, Lonza, added “Early assessment of immunogenicity, developability and manufacturability of novel drug candidates significantly increases the chances of success. This new expansion increases our flexibility to support customers in advancing potentially life-saving drug candidates from late-stage discovery into the clinic. It will enable us to support US biotechs in managing the path to commercialization for their novel therapies.”

Lonza Early Development Services (EDS) offers a comprehensive suite of in silico and in vitro early development services to assist pharmaceutical and biotech companies in de-risking and optimizing their late candidate selection and lead candidate development process. EDS also provides early, phase-appropriate non-GMP protein expression via Lonza’s Light Path  Discovery platform.

Lonza is a preferred global partner to the pharmaceutical, biotech and nutrition markets. We work to enable a healthier world by supporting our customers to deliver new and innovative medicines that help treat a wide range of diseases. We achieve this by combining technological insight with world-class manufacturing, scientific expertise and process excellence. Our business is structured to meet our customers’ complex needs across four divisions: Biologics, Small Molecules, Cell & Gene and Capsules & Health Ingredients. Our unparalleled breadth of offerings across divisions enables our customers to commercialize their discoveries and innovations in the healthcare industry.

Founded in 1897 in the Swiss Alps, today, Lonza operates across five continents. With approximately 17,500 full-time employees, we comprise high-performing teams and individual talent who make a meaningful difference to our own business, as well as to the communities in which we operate. The company generated sales of CHF 6.2 billion with a CORE EBITDA of CHF 2.0 billion in Full-Year 2022. Find out more at www.lonza.com.