SWITZERLAND – Lonza has completed a laboratory expansion project at its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility in Nansha, China.

The project, which increased the lab’s footprint by 250 square meters and included the addition of new analytical and manufacturing equipment, is set to begin operations this month. The cost of the expansion was not revealed.

The additions expand both the capabilities and capacity of development laboratories, as well as kilogram-scale production of highly potent APIs (HPAPIs), which have become a significant part of Lonza’s small-molecule development pipeline due to increased demand, according to the company.

Jan Vertommen, an executive director for Lonza, said: “With over 1,000 HPAPIs in development across multiple indications, there is a growing need for HPAPI development and manufacturing capacity from early-phase to commercial.”

In recent years, Lonza has been on an expansion spree. Aside from the completion of the Nansha project, the company announced in August 2021 the addition of a fill-finish line at its Guangzhou, China, facility, which had only recently opened its doors.

In addition, the company has a facility in Suzhou, China, where it manufactures drug capsules and provides microbial control solutions.

Lonza announced in May of last year that it would spend US$935 million to build mammalian facilities in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Visp, Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Cytiva, a Massachusetts-based research and biopharma manufacturing specialist, has opened its doors in Cardiff, Wales.

The 11,000-square-meter Welsh facility is already producing mixer bags, flow kits, and tubing assemblies for customers in the development and manufacture of biopharmaceuticals such as COVID-19 vaccines.

Cytiva anticipates that construction on five additional clean rooms will be completed later this year. The company, a subsidiary of the conglomerate Danaher, is currently hiring for 250 factory positions.

The project is part of Cytiva’s US$1.5 billion global expansion plan, which was announced last year. Cytiva announced a US$500 million expansion push a year ago.

Cytiva’s global expansion plans include the announcement in September of a US$52.5 million facility in South Korea to manufacture disposable cell-culture bags used in vaccine production.

Cytiva’s expansion is also part of an effort to alleviate shortages of large, sterile plastic bags used to grow vaccine cells, which were triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and identified as a global concern by the World Health Organization.

Curia, a CDMO based in New York, has signed an agreement with the US government to provide domestic production of injectable medicines and to expand its manufacturing operations in New Mexico.

Curia will be able to add a new high-speed fill-finish line to its Albuquerque, New Mexico, production facility as part of a 65,000-square-foot expansion.

The new facility will include a pair of 430-square-foot lyophilizers, automated visual inspection technology, automated packaging capacity, ultra-cold storage capability, and other enhanced security features under the terms of the agreement.

In addition, the company announced the addition of an isolated flexible filling line to a nearby filling facility in Albuquerque.

Curia, formerly known as Albany Molecular Research (AMRI), recently announced that two of its recent acquisitions, Integrity Bio and LakePharma, have been fully integrated into the Curia family.

Both Integrity Bio, a formulation and fill-finish specialist and LakePharma, a biologics R&D and manufacturer, were purchased for undisclosed amounts in July.

Curia, for its part, was purchased in 2017 for US$920 million by private equity investors The Carlyle Group and GTCR.

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