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06/23/1999
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| With the move into the new 40'000 sq. ft. Research and Development laboratories in Slough, UK and the successful startup of the new 5000L fermenter suites in Portsmouth NH, Lonza Biologics has laid a sound basis for further strengthening its custom manufacturing services ranging from complete cell line development to large scale cGMP production of protein based drugs and monoclonal antibodies using mammalian cell culture technology. The recently announced major collaboration with Genzyme Transgenics Inc., the premier animal transgenics company and planned further expansions in the area of cGMP microbial fermentation and biotransformation activities of Lonza Biotec, underline Lonza's commitment in the area of Biotechnology. |
Lonza Biologics: Building for success
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| Over 95 scientists moved into the new 40'000 sq. ft. Research & Development laboratories during 1998 to handle the increasing demand for biopharmaceutical product development. Teams of molecular biologists and cell culture scientists work on the development and scale up, including high throughput screening of the most productive and most stable hybridoma, mouse myeloma, CHO and human-derived cell lines in eighteen segregated cell culture rooms to protect for potential contamination from other cell lines. A broad range of affinity, ion-exchange, hydrophobic interaction and gel permeation chromatograpy methods have been developed for the purification of a wide range of proteins, requiring the high standards of purity needed for these therapeutic products. |
Successful start-up of 5000L fermentation suite
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| On April 29, 1999 Lonza Biologics successfully started the first fermentations in a new 5000L fermentation suite at Lonza Biologics facility in Portsmouth, NH. In the coming months Lonza expects a rapidly increasing capacity utilization for both of these large scale reactors. These extensions are in response to a sharp increase in demand for custom manufacturing services as the market for monoclonal antibodies and other recombinant proteins matures and expands. |
Eli Lilly collaboration
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| One of the major projects is the development and production of a therapeutic protein for Eli Lilly, which is produced using Lonza's proprietary GS expression system from mammalian cell cultures. In addition to the new 5000L suite, 2x 1500L stirred perfusion reactors in a second fermentation suite are nearing completion, together with associated dowstream processing equipment. Depending on Eli Lilly's requirements for the protein, construction of large scale fermentation facilties and recovery buildings in Portsmouth, NH is expected to start late 1999 or early 2000. |
Lonza / GTC alliance
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| On May 18, Lonza Biologics and Genzyme Transgenics Inc. announced a major new alliance. The two companies, both leaders in the development and production of therapeutic proteins, see the combination of their skills for products in the GTC pipeline as natural fit. As a leading technology company, GTC has built a premier position for the expression of therapeutic proteins in transgenic animals. The challenge for GTC was to fully develop the technologies and capacity required to recover those proteins from milk. The ability to leverage almost 20 years of experience and the facilities of Lonza Biologics to meet the needs of GTC and its customers is a very attractive opportunity. We are already discussing a number of specific projects out of GTC's customer funded portfolio. While there is a large pipeline of mammalian cell products ahead of us, we also see excellent opportunities for transgenic expression systems, especially for large volume/lower priced therapeutic proteins. |
Expanding Lonza Biotec's microbial fermentation and bioconversion activities
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Since the 1992 acquisition and debottlenecking of Lonza Biotec's fermentation plant in Kourim, Czech Republic, the demand for L-Carnitine and especially custom fermentation/bioconversion services for small molecule peptides and advanced fine chemical intermediates produced under GMP requirements have continued to increase. An FDA inspection is expected to conclude the plant approval for GMP manufacturing in the 3rd quarter 1999. Plans are at advanced stage to further increase the fermentation and corresponding downstream processing capacity for Lonza Biotec, the microbial/bioconversion part of the Lonza Biotechnology business unit.
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Outlook
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With an increasing number of new microbially derived products entering late phase clinical development, we anticipate an increasing need for cGMP fermentation capacity for therapeutic proteins made via microbial fermentation. An expansion of Lonza's offering in this area could be a valuable addition to the already established custom fermentation/bioconversion and mammalian cell culture services. Together with the already mentioned GTC alliance it underlines Lonza's commitment to strengthen its world's leading position in the area of Biotechnology.
The chemical activities of the Alusuisse-Lonza Group are organized in two Divisions (Fine Chemicals & Specialties and Intermediates & Additives), which both market products under the Lonza name. Lonza Fine Chemicals & Specialties develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of complex fine chemicals, intermediates and chemical specialties. The Division has 11 production facilities in the USA, Switzerland, England, the Czech Republic and China, and employs some 4,346 people. In 1998, it generated sales of more than 1510 billion Swiss francs.
visit our new biotechnology web site: http://www.lonza.com/biotechnology
For further information please contact:
Dr. Walter Eschenmoser
Lonza Ltd., Basel, Switzerland
t + 41 61 316 83 63
f + 41 61 316 93 63
walter.eschenmoser@lonzagroup.com
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