Lonza Group Ltd celebrates the groundbreaking of the new facility for its Cell Therapy business, located at Tuas Biomedical Park in Singapore and adjacent to Lonza’s large-scale mammalian manufacturing facility.

In his welcome address to celebrate the groundbreaking ceremony, Stefan Borgas, CEO of Lonza, said: “This new Cell Therapy manufacturing facility is a next step in fulfilling our strategy to expand our capacity globally and our presence in Asia. Cell Therapy is expected to be one of the most important innovation drivers of modern medicine and this new facility reinforces Lonza’s leading position as a custom manufacturer of cellular therapeutics”.

The construction of the Cell Therapy manufacturing facility was initiated in May 2009. Construction will begin early in 2010 and the facility is expected to begin manufacturing therapies within the first two suites by mid-2011. The facility is designed to accommodate additional suites built to meet incremental customer demand. The total investment for the first phase will be approximately CHF 30 million.