How have things panned out for Lonza after the pandemic?
Lonza had the chance to contribute towards the fight against COVID-19 through producing drug substance for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. It was rewarding for both the company and our employees to feel that we were helping the world during a global crisis, and from a business point of view, we were able to demonstrate the value of our Ibex Solutions concept. Ibex Solutions is a biopark of pre-built facilities supported by a flexible and responsive business model. Our three innovative offerings - Ibex Design, Ibex Develop, and Ibex Dedicate - span the complete product lifecycle of a biopharmaceutical from preclinical to commercial stages, from drug substance to drug product. Through our Ibex Solutions, we were able to optimize pre-built manufacturing capacity, enabling us to ramp up production at speed during the pandemic.
We are currently investing around 30% of our sales revenue per year in growth. This is invested into a combination of capacity expansion and new technology to sustain our growth at a high margin. The majority of our investments are going into the mammalian and biologics space, but we are also investing in the fill and finish, small molecules, cell and gene therapy, and capsule areas.
What challenges are faced when producing at scale with major time constraint, and how has Lonza navigated this?
When developing a new drug, on top of the clinical challenges, there are three major challenges on the technical side. Firstly, you need a robust and scalable manufacturing process developed by scientists and biologists. Secondly, you need to manufacture a product for your clinical study, and if you are successful, you need to produce that product at a commercial scale, which means you need to invest in specific manufacturing facilities. This investment may be affordable for large pharma, but it can be much more difficult for smaller companies. Thirdly, the pharma industry is heavily regulated, and you thus need regulatory expertise to be successful. Lonza brings the technical expertise on the manufacturing process, offers manufacturing facilities, and brings the regulatory expertise required on the quality side.
Our customers are both large pharma and small biotech companies looking to innovate. The US is the center of innovative pharma, and we have a large mammalian facility in Portsmouth, one of the biggest cell & gene facilities in Texas, and a number of capsule and small molecule manufacturing sites across the US. After the pandemic, localization of supply chains has become increasingly important, and we are seeing more customers who want to produce within the US rather than importing.
Are there any other innovations Lonza is currently working on?
We are a leading company in antibody drug conjugates – a monoclonal antibody chemically linked to a toxic small-molecule therapeutic. This is a niche class of drugs that offers promise, particularly in the oncology space as the cell-killing ability of a cytotoxin is joined with the specificity of a monoclonal antibody to produce the next generation of anticancer therapeutics.
Another innovation we are proud of is in the cell and gene therapy space where we were able to develop viral vectors to make modified cells in order to treat various diseases.
With our advanced viral vector technologies and easy access to proprietary novel vectors, Lonza can support our customers in their gene therapy applications. Finally, in November 2022, Lonza launched a new capsule solution for intestinal drug delivery called Capsugel Enprotect™. The capsule does not disintegrate during stomach transit and only releases its contents in the intestine.
