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Lonza and Bio*One Capital to Invest in Second Large Scale Commercial Mammalian Cell Culture Manufacturing Facility

08 Dec 2006 - Lonza Group Ltd and Singapore's Bio*One Capital announce the signing of a joint venture, Lonza Biologics Tuas, to build a large-scale mammalian cell culture facility in Singapore for the manufacture of commercial biopharmaceuticals. This will be the second large-scale mammalian manufacturing plant in Singapore, and the third one globally that Lonza has built. Depending upon customer request, the capital investment will amount up to USD 350 million.
 
Lonza and Bio*One Capital entered into an initial joint venture in February 2006 to build an 80,000 liter large-scale mammalian biopharmaceutical production facility named Lonza Biologics Singapore Pte Ltd. This facility became 100% owned by Lonza upon signing of the Lonza Biologics Tuas joint venture. Genentech has an exclusive option to acquire the Lonza owned facility between 2007 and 2012.
 
Lonza Biologics Tuas, located in Tuas Biomedical Park, will have up to four mammalian bioreactor trains, each with a flexible capacity of 1'000 up to 20'000 liters and inclusive of the respective purification units. The plant is expected to be constructed over two phases. The construction of the Lonza Biologics Tuas shell, in the first phase, will be initiated in February 2007 and the groundbreaking ceremony shall be celebrated in March 2007. The final build-out of the facility shall be completed and become operational at the latest in 2011, in line with customer commitments. When fully completed, Lonza Biologics Tuas expects to hire approximately 350 people for the operation.