Lonza expands Stein site again with commercial fill-finish plant

Lonza will invest $521 million to construct a commercial large-scale fill-finish facility at its site in Stein, Switzerland.

According to the Swiss contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) the facility will support  customers across their entire product life cycle.

The firm dubbed the facility located on the same campus as Lonza’s existing plant as “flexible” and said that the location will enable the company to make use of existing capabilities, talent, and infrastructure.

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“There is significant market demand for commercial drug product manufacturing,” a spokesperson for Lonza told BioProcess Insider.

“The new facility will focus on large-scale, commercial drug product fill and finish, which means the process of filling vials with a pharmaceutical product. It will enable Lonza to provide customers with a commercial-scale supply of pharmaceutical products in different commercial formats, including vials and syringes.”

Lonza acquired the Stein facility from Swiss pharma giant Novartis in 2019, and has continued to integrate the plant into its global biomanufacturing network through various investments, including an extra aseptic line in 2021.

Lonza claims it will take a sustainable approach to construction of the new fill-finish facility, aiming to reduce carbon energy use as well as installing a photovoltaic roof.

The firm anticipates the plant to be fully operational in 2026 and the spokesperson could not disclose a specific number of employees it expects to hire but said: “With this new investment, a new multi-purpose commercial fill-finish facility will be built to support the production of larger volumes of commercial products.”

Lonza says the decision to further invest in its drug product manufacturing offerings in Stein contributes to its strategic commitment to offer an end-to-end service to its clients. The CDMO has expanded its clinical drug product offering in Visp, Switzerland, Guangzhou, China, and Basel, Switzerland.