Lonza is proceeding with multiple investments in its core CDMO business to increase capacity in large-scale biomanufacturing, bioconjugation, and drug-product manufacturing. Stefan Egli, Business Unit Head, Mammalian, Lonza, provided an update at the DCAT Member Company Announcement Forum held at DCAT Week. 

The company is investing CHF 500 million ($571 million) at its site in Vacaville, California, to increase its large-scale mammalian manufacturing capacity for commercial products and products in late-stage development. Lonza acquired the site in late 2024 from Roche’s Genentech for $1.2 billion. The site has total capacity of 332,000 L across 19 bioreactors.  

In Visp, Switzerland, the company is investing in a new 3,000-m² facility comprising three large-scale suites with a capacity of up to 1,200 L. to support production of bioconjugates, including antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). One suite will be dedicated to a major global biopharmaceutical partner for commercial-scale manufacture of an ADC. The other two suites will be multi-purpose, doubling capacity for the launch and commercial supply of bioconjugates. The dedicated suite is expected to be operational by 2027, with the multi-purpose suites following soon after in 2028. 

At its facility in Stein, Switzerland, Lonza is adding both dedicated and multi-purpose high-containment filling capabilities. From the second quarter of 2025, the facility will allow highly potent biologics such as ADCs to be filled and lyophilized under containment. The dedicated high-containment ADC drug-product facility is expected to become operational in 2027, creating 115 jobs at its peak. Lonza is also investing in a multi-purpose facility to increase large-scale commercial capacity in drug products. The 20,000-m² large-scale multi-purpose facility will support the filling of biologics into vials, prefilled syringes and cartridges, with operations expected to commence in 2027. 

Lonza is also co-investing with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a Boston-based bio/pharmaceutical company, to build a dedicated manufacturing facility for Vertex’s portfolio of investigational allogeneic cell therapies for patients with Type 1 diabetes. The 12,000-m² facility in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, will create up to 300 jobs at peak capacity.  

These investments build on the company’s capital expenditures in its core COMO business, which tallied CHF 1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) in 2024 (equivalent to 22% of sales.