Sanofi and Lonza have entered into a strategic partnership to build and operate a large-scale mammalian cell culture facility for manufacturing monoclonal antibodies at Lonza’s site in Visp, Switzerland. Under the partnership, the companies have formed a joint venture which will have an initial investment of CHF 290 million ($289 million), to be split equally between each company.

The joint venture combines Sanofi’s biologics development pipeline and Lonza’s experience in designing, constructing, starting up, and operating a large-scale mammalian cell culture facility. The initial phase of construction will begin in 2017, pending necessary regulatory approvals, and the facility is expected to be fully operational by 2020. Lonza has previously built and licensed three similar facilities in the US and Singapore.

Under the agreement, each party will share the available capacity in line with their equity shareholding in the joint venture; Sanofi will have additional access to bio-manufacturing capacity to support increasing demands for its biologics portfolio, should the company require it; Lonza will be free to market their share of capacity, if not required by Sanofi, and will also market unused Sanofi capacity, where available; and Lonza will construct the facility and will support the joint venture in its operation of the facility.

Source: Sanofi