Lonza buys Vivante to get bigger in biologics

Swiss contract manufacturer and fine chemicals firm Lonza has expanded its biologics production capacity with the purchase of US firm Vivante GMP Solutions.

Vivante, based in Texas, specialises in viral-based manufacturing technologies and serves the vaccine and gene therapy markets, a market which Lonza has been trying to enter in order to round out its contract manufacturing capabilities.

In a statement, Lonza said that Vivante's production services "will be enhanced by Lonza's established expertise in expression technologies and large-scale manufacturing platforms".

The Swiss company added that Vivante's experience with the supply of viral vector-based products will complement its Therapeutic Cell Solutions business, which offers cell and gene therapy process development and manufacturing.

Lonza took a strategic decision to move into higher-margin biologics manufacturing a number of years ago, at a time when its traditional chemical production business was being squeezed by competition from Asia.

Since then has been steadily building up its services to create a high-technology, high-value portfolio that offers barriers to entry for its rivals.

By Lonza's own admission, investment in areas such as cell and gene therapy is not expected to yield big gains in the short term, but is a medium- to long-term play expected to reap dividends when R&D investment in academia and small-scale biotech business returns.

The company's first-half results revealed the general weakness in the contract manufacturing sector, with some pharmaceutical companies preferring to make use of internal capacity rather than outsource production. Overall, customs manufacturing sales fell nearly 7% in the first half to CHF 536 million out of total group sales of CHF 1.3 billion.

However, the biologics division saw increased capacity utilisation, driven by stronger order placement and the introduction of "multiple new products from a solid project pipeline", according to Lonza's interim statement.

Phil Taylor