Lonza Group AG. (11/19/18). "Press Release: Lonza Opens Collaborative Innovation Center in Haifa, Israel". Haifa.

	Organisation	Lonza Collaborative Innovation Center (CIC) (Haifa, IL)
	Group	Lonza (Group)
	Organisation 2	Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Center for Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering
	Group	Chaim Sheba Medical Center
	Product	GS Xceed™ Gene Expression System
	Product 2	Cocoon® cell therapy manufacturing technology
	Index term	Lonza–Chaim Sheba Medical Center: cell therapy manufacturing technology, 201811 collab existent to evaluate + test Cocoon technology
	Person	Funk, Marc (Recipharm 202301 Board Director before since 202103 CEO before 200901–202001 Lonza)
	Person 2	Grynspan- Gotlieb, Frida (Lonza 201811 Head of Collaborative Innovation Center Haifa)

> New center will be a hub to identify and accelerate fresh solutions to rethink drug development and manufacturing

> Labs in the new facility, together with funding, will enable projects in collaboration with Israeli talent in academia, medical institutions and early-stage innovative companies

Lonza Pharma & Biotech officially opens its Collaborative Innovation Center (CIC) in the Haifa Life Science Park, Israel. The CIC acts as a hub for partnerships to identify and accelerate new solutions for biopharma manufacturing.

The 1,000 m2 (10,764 ft2) facility, including lab space equipped with cutting-edge bioprocessing and analytical equipment, is being made available to collaborating partners as a test bed for new ideas and technology. In addition to infrastructure, Lonza will make funding and in-house expertise available for collaborative research into strategic areas of application relevant to a variety of biopharma development needs.

“Israel has established itself as a point of convergence for digital technologies, engineering and life sciences, providing new solutions for healthcare in particular,” said Marc Funk, COO Lonza Pharma & Biotech. “We want to expand this potential to reimagine the development and manufacturing of future medicines by working with academic institutions, teaching hospitals and startups.”

The CIC is open to ideas that might benefit Lonza customers and has already signed up with leading institutions in Israel on research projects in three key focus areas:

> Expression systems and synthetic biology to enable efficient scale up of the increasingly complex protein-based constructs currently in early stage pipelines. Lonza is expanding on its successful GS System® to develop a novel toolbox of solutions for hard-to-express proteins and new molecular formats.

> Increasing numbers of cell and gene therapies are advancing towards commercialization but
manufacturing technology remains relatively immature. Lonza hopes to combine its in house knowledge and technology with local expertise and proximity to teaching hospitals and academic institutions, driving reliable and repeatable processes and enabling more patients to access these therapies.

> Data acquisition and analytics are essential to driving efficiency and consistency in manufacturing processes. Lonza’s CIC will tap into the wealth of expertise in sensor technology and big data handling to develop better in-line testing and predictive analytics to optimize and control bioprocesses.

Several projects are currently underway including with the Center for Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, a leader in the field of CAR-T therapies. Lonza and Sheba will be working together to evaluate and test the CocoonTM manufacturing technology, a patient-scale, closed and automated cell-therapy manufacturing system.

"Advanced autologous cell therapies are growing to become a major part of future medicine. High-quality manufacturing at point-of-care, is a key challenge in making these applicable,” said Dr. Elad Jacoby, Sheba Medical Center.

“We have treated more than 60 children and young adults with leukemia and lymphoma with CAR-T cells, which makes Sheba Medical Center the ideal place to help drive new technologies that could extend treatment to even more young people," he added. "The collaboration with Lonza will enable us to develop a growing platform for production of CAR-T and other cell therapies.”

The CIC sits at the interface of Lonza’s extensive R&D network, with eight sites globally, and the Israeli innovation community. It will be run by Dr Frida Grynspan- Gotlieb, who brings her extensive R&D experience in the Israeli biotech and life sciences sectors.

A short, explanatory film is available here. Additional photos requests can be sent to the media contacts below.

About Lonza

Lonza is one of the world’s leading and most-trusted suppliers to the pharmaceutical, biotech and specialty ingredients markets. As an integrated solutions provider, Lonza is boosting its value creation along and beyond the healthcare continuum with a strong focus on patient healthcare, consumer preventive healthcare and consumer's healthy environment.

Lonza harnesses science and technology to create products that support safer and healthier living and that enhance the overall quality of life. With the recent Capsugel acquisition, Lonza now offers products and services from the custom development and manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients to innovative dosage forms for the pharma and consumer health and nutrition industries.

Benefiting from its regulatory expertise, Lonza is able to transfer its know-how from pharma to hygiene and fast-moving consumer goods all the way to coatings and composites and the preservation and protection of agricultural goods and other natural resources.

Founded in 1897 in the Swiss Alps, Lonza today is a well-respected global company with more than 100 sites and offices and approximately 14,500 full-time employees worldwide. The company generated sales of CHF 5.1 billion in 2017 with a CORE EBITDA of CHF 1.3 billion. Further information can be found at www.lonza.com.

Lonza Contact Details

For Investor Relations Inquiries:
Dirk Oehlers, Head Investor Relations
Lonza Group Ltd
Tel +41 61 316 8540
dirk.oehlers@lonza.com

For Media Inquiries:
Lonza Corporate Communications
Constance Ward, Head External Communications
Lonza Group Ltd
Tel +41 61 316 8840
constance.ward@lonza.com

Lonza Pharma & Biotech
Sanna Fowler, Head Public Relations
Lonza Pharma & Biotech
Tel +41 61 316 8929
sanna.fowler@lonza.com

Additional Information and Disclaimer

Lonza Group Ltd has its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. It has a secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (“SGX-ST”). Lonza Group Ltd is not subject to the SGX-ST’s continuing listing requirements but remains subject to Rules 217 and 751 of the SGXST Listing Manual.

Certain matters discussed in this news release may constitute forwardlooking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and estimates of Lonza Group Ltd, although Lonza Group Ltd can give no assurance that these expectations and estimates will be achieved. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainty and are qualified in their entirety. The actual results may differ materially in the future from the forward-looking statements included in this news release due to various factors. Furthermore, except as otherwise required by law, Lonza Group Ltd disclaims any intention or obligation to update the statements contained in this news release.

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Record changed: 2023-06-05