Lonza Expands Capacity, Adds Deal

Lonza will spend about $27 million to build a new cell therapy facility at the Tuas Biomedical Park in Singapore. The plant will be Lonza's first for cellular therapeutics in Asia; the firm already has 12 current Good Manufacturing Practices-certified cell therapy manufacturing suites in the U.S. and Europe. Construction will begin in early 2010 with the initial start-up of two suites by mid-2011. Separately, Lonza has signed a deal with Morphotek, a subsidiary of Eisai, to develop and manufacture Morphotek's therapeutic antibodies. Morphotek's lead antibody, farletuzumab, recently entered Phase III clinical trials for ovarian cancer.