Lonza entered an agreement with GE Healthcare under which GE will deliver a biologics facility to Lonza in Guangzhou. The facility is part of a larger biomanufacturing initiative between GE Healthcare and Guangzhou Development District (GDD), and the agreement will be finalized when contracts have been signed with the GDD. The new facility will give Lonza Pharma & Biotech a strategic base in China to provide high-quality CDMO services in the country. Lonza plans to hire and train more than 160 staff.
 
By working with GE Healthcare to develop the new facility, based on the KUBio platform, an off-the-shelf biologics factory, Lonza plans to offer its suite of antibody development services and manufacture GMP-certified batches by 2020. The two companies will on the design of the 17,000m² site, which will include 6,500m² of lab space and one KUBio facility.
 
The labs will house Lonza’s platforms for cell-line construction, including the GS Gene Expression System, as well as process development, cell banking and pilot labs. The KUBio unit will enable small-scale GMP manufacturing equipped with GE Healthcare’s single-use biomanufacturing technologies, including 1,000 and 2,000L bioreactors, combined with Lonza’s automation platforms for clinical and early-commercial supply.
 
“This partnership is the ideal way for Lonza to bring our expertise and technology to China,” said Marc Funk, chief operating officer Lonza Pharma & Biotech. “The combination of a strong and experienced technology provider with a long history in China, together with a dynamic regional authority, means that we can rapidly offer services to customers and ultimately get innovative therapies to patients more quickly.”
 
“With Lonza coming on site, a hub of biotech is truly taking shape,” said Emmanuel Ligner, president and chief executive officer, GE Healthcare Life Sciences. “This agreement is yet another step in realizing our vision of enabling and supporting manufacturers of all sizes to quickly deploy capacity and meet increasing customer demand for biologics.”