Lonza Group Signed an Important Agreement
On Monday, Swiss pharmaceutical group Lonza signed a manufacturing agreement with Sweden’s Oasmia Pharmaceutical for ovarian cancer drug candidate Cantrixil that was licensed by Oasmia Pharmaceutical from the Australian pharmaceutical company Kazia in 2021.
As part of the agreement, Lonza will provide kilogram-scale synthesis, purification, and stability testing of Cantrixil. It will also deliver cGMP batches of drug substance for clinical supply according to the company.
Lonza Group and its facility in China
The company plans to begin the process of manufacturing this month at its recently expanded production facility in China.
The company completed a laboratory expansion at its active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing site at Nansha. The goal of the expansion was to extend the capabilities and capacity of development laboratories and kilogram-scale cGMP manufacturing laboratories for the clinical supply of highly-potent APIs (HPAPI).
People should keep in mind that HPAPIs represent a growing part of the small molecules pipeline with special requirements related to equipment, process safety, containment and facility design. Moreover, they currently form a large part of the company’s small molecule development pipeline. Also, the demand for manufacturing is growing. As a reminder, the new laboratories are part of the recent investment to expand the mid-scale manufacturing capacity at Nansha. Thanks to its expanded production facility Lonza will be able to meet the demand for HPAPIs.
Jan Vertommen from Lonza made an interesting comment. He stated that there are more than 1,000 HPAPIs in development. There is a need for HPAPI development and manufacturing capacity from the early phase to commercial, according to Vertommen.
Interestingly, the laboratory capabilities increased the laboratory footprint to 250 square meters. Lonza equipped new laboratories with state-of-the-art analytical and manufacturing equipment.
Furthermore, the expanded capabilities at its facility in China will continue to support the development and manufacture of innovative treatments for its customers and their patients.
