Lonza has made a significant investment to expand its particle engineering and drug product capabilities at its Bend, OR site. New suites for the development and clinical manufacture of drug product intermediates and drug products using spray-drying, hot-melt extrusion and melt-spray-congeal processing will be completed by May 2022. The first suite will expand early-phase spray-drying, tableting and encapsulation capability and is expected to be on-line by December 2020.

The new cGMP suites will be added to support early-phase cGMP manufacture incorporating additional storage, gowning, and a customer in-plant viewing corridor. Non-cGMP capability for formulation and process development will also be expanded with one new suite.

The investment increases capacity and flexibility across particle engineering and oral drug products, including immediate-release tablets, multiparticulates, and dry powder encapsulation for oral solid and inhaled applications.

The Bend Center of Excellence for bioavailability enhancement and inhaled delivery for Lonza’s Small Molecules business unit focuses on advancing spray-drying and other particle engineering approaches to address solubility and other complex drug formulation and manufacturing challenges.

Paul Granberry, Managing Director, Lonza Bend, “We continue to see increased demand for development, clinical and commercial manufacture of particle-engineered intermediates and finished drug products. Dedicated, fit-for-purpose suites, infrastructure and systems are critical for supporting the needs of our customers’ early-phase programs.”