BASEL, SWITZERLAND/ PARIS, FRANCE: Lonza Group and Sanofi SA have entered into a strategic partnership to build and operate a large-scale mammalian cell culture facility for monoclonal antibody production in Visp, Switzerland.
Sanofi is a French multinational pharmaceutical company, whereas Lonza is a Swiss multinational, chemicals and biotechnology company.
The strategic partnership in the form of a joint venture combines the strong biologics development pipeline of Sanofi with the expertise of Lonza to design, construct, start-up and operate a state-of-the-art large-scale mammalian cell culture facility. The initial investment will be around CHF 290 million (€270 million/ $285 million), to be split equally between each company.
The initial phase of the facility will commence construction in 2017, pending necessary regulatory approvals, and is expected to be fully operational by 2020. Lonza has previously built and licensed three similar facilities in the US and Singapore.
The deal provides both the companies with substantial flexibility in an innovative setup:
- Each party will share the available capacity in line with their equity shareholding in the joint venture.
- Sanofi will have additional access to biomanufacturing capacity to support increasing demands for their portfolio of biologic therapeutic products, should they require it.
- Lonza will be free to market their share of capacity, if not required by Sanofi, and will also market unused Sanofi capacity, where available.
- Lonza will construct the facility and will support the joint venture in its operations of the facility.
The strategic partnership enables Sanofi to react quickly to fluctuations in demand in a short timeframe, reinforcing their capability to launch high-quality, next generation biologic medicines and ensure consistent access for patients. It also provides Lonza with needed capacities to respond to growing manufacturing demands for large-scale mammalian cell culture-based therapeutic proteins, therefore allowing Lonza to better serve its customers. By adding flexibility in this way, this model will help to optimise biologics production capacity across the whole industry.
“In addition to the investments we are making in building our own internal production capabilities, the joint venture emphasises our commitment to provide access for patients to high quality therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Lonza is a highly-experienced partner in this field and the capabilities which this JV will create are critical to meeting our patients’ needs for these important therapies,” said Philippe Luscan, executive vice president, global industrial affairs, Sanofi.
“As part of our strategic roadmap, we will develop further innovative business models based on the requirements of our customers. We intend to address these long-term market needs by establishing a state-of-the-art strategic biologics manufacturing platform. This alliance with Sanofi represents the first module in this undertaking; and we are convinced that with this future-oriented approach, we can serve additional customers,” added Marc Funk, COO Pharma & Biotech, Lonza.
© Worldofchemicals News
Read More: Lonza, Sanofi to build Swiss biologics facility; invests €270 mn
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