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Peptides & Proteins
Broadening the peptides
manufacturing portfolio
Lukas Utiger, Head of the Business Sector Exclusive Synthesis at Lonza, explains the strategic
thinking behind the company’s recent acquisition of the Bioproducts manufacturing division of UCB
and how the company is moving forward in developing its business in the custom peptides
manufacturing sector.
L
onza has made a big impact in the peptides
manufacturing sector following its recent acquisition of
UCB-Bioproducts. Lonza acquired UCB’s peptide
manufacturing division for €120 million. The division, which
has about 300 employees, is located in Braine-l’Alleud, near
Belgium, Brussels, and the site now operates as ‘Lonza-Braine’.
“By uniting the two peptide businesses, Lonza has become
the leading and sole contract manufacturer with a historically
successful track record of providing APIs from any of the three
peptide technologies, solid phase peptide synthesis, liquid
phase peptide synthesis, and recombinant technology,” says
Lukas Utiger, Head of the Business Sector Exclusive Synthesis
at Lonza. “Lonza is now capable of rapidly providing the market
with additional capacity. This acquisition provides us with a site
having global reach in peptides, and world-leading process
development and production expertise to serve its customer
base. Lonza-Braine perfectly complements our other sites in
Visp, Switzerland, Riverside Conshohocken in the USA, and
Kourim in the Czech Republic, thus significantly elevating the
level of our customers’ sourcing security.”
Custom chemical products
Lonza generated sales of SFr2.52 billion in 2005. The company
operates 22 production and R&D sites around the world
providing custom manufacture of chemical intermediates, active
ingredients and biopharmaceuticals for the pharmaceutical and
agrochemical industries. On the basis of its organic chemical,
oleochemical and biotechnology platforms, the company also
produces a range of speciality chemicals for other industrial
markets. In addition, it offers polymer intermediates, resins and
compounds.
“Lonza is in the unique situation of being able to offer various
manufacturing strategies based on chemistry and microbial
fermentation to provide customers with the best possible
solution,” says Utiger.
In solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS), Lonza can offer
straightforward synthesis on solid resin supports or a hybrid
approach in which various fragments are produced on solid
supports and subsequently condensed in the liquid phase. The
company has a solid phase synthesis capacity of multi-hundred
kilos per annum of peptide APIs at the Visp site. For liquid
phase peptide synthesis (LPPS), it operates production vessels
in the range from 160-10,000 litres at Visp and Braine.
Microbial recombinant production of peptides is carried out in
vessels with various capacities up to 75 cubic metres.
First investments in peptides
Lonza started working in the peptides area in 1998 on the
Hirulog product, a peptide containing 20 amino acids. The
synthetic approach used was a combination of biotechnology
and chemical synthesis. This business represented the starting
point and foundation for Lonza’s investments in peptide
production based on chemistry. The company differentiates itself
from others by offering the three different technologies for the
production of peptides on all scales and with an upper limit of
500kg peptide API per annum. In addition, Lonza offers
integrated solutions by backward integration of specific, key raw
materials produced in-house, solvent recycling and waste
treatment on an industrial scale.
Lonza’s business is driven by peptides that are in late clinical
phases and commercial production and that cover highly
populated indications such as diabetes, obesity, cancer and the
like. A strong pipeline of products is still in clinical Phase II-III,
with new emerging technologies such as modified peptides to
enhance product lifetime in the blood stream.
Geographically, the majority of the company’s peptides
business is still in the USA, accounting for about 80 per cent.
The company says Europe, Japan, Asia and Australia are
emerging areas and will become more important in the future
due a strong evolving biopharma scene, with robust early-phase
pipelines.
Significant acquisition
Lonza has a broad range of capabilities in peptides manufacturing:
pictured is the control system for the unloading of product.
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MAY 2006
“The acquisition of UCB-Bioproducts, now designated as LonzaBraine, represents a significant leap for Lonza’s peptide business
and reinforces our capabilities and capacity in the chemical
synthesis of peptides,” says Utiger. “With this acquisition Lonza
has a clear leadership position in mid- to large-scale peptide
manufacturing. Besides the critical size of production, synthesis
know-how and experience in all three technology areas are
www.sp2.uk.com
available for our customers as well as corresponding QC
development expertise. In summary, out of two strong players in
peptide custom manufacturing, a clear leader was formed,
specialising in mid- to large-volume peptide production and the
latest peptide development technologies.
“Lonza is offering three different technologies for the
production of peptides on all scales,” continues Utiger. “This
positions Lonza in a unique way that no competitor can match.
The value transferred to the pharmaceutical and biotechology
sectors is twofold: the right technology mix for the production of
peptides eases the manufacturing cost structure not only from
the production point of view, that is, operating units, but also in
terms of a reduction in the overall cost of goods.”
Lonza uses liquid phase synthesis primarily for the production
of small to medium-sized molecules (2-10 amino acids) on all
scales; solid phase synthesis is the method of choice for
production of medium to long peptides (10-50 amino acids);
and biotechnology comes into play when the peptide is very
long, complex in structure, and with higher volumes required.
“With the acquisition of Lonza-Braine, Lonza is in the enviable
position of being able to offer all technologies separately or in
combination on small, medium and large scale, from grams to
500kg. Ultimately Lonza is able to offer service throughout the
entire life cycle of a peptide,” says Utiger.
In the next phase of Lonza’s expansion of its peptide
technologies, the whole service platform will be rounded off with
a strengthened position in early-phase small-scale sampling.
Work in this area will be started as soon as the integration of
UCB-Bioproducts is completed.
The future for custom peptides
“The custom service sector will consist of niche players
providing specific technology tools for production of research
quantities for target validation, lead identification, and so on,
and of producers of commercial and clinical material. Due to the
development of new delivery systems and modifications of the
peptide structure, more players with proprietary technologies
will enter the market as well. In addition, new generic suppliers
will emerge and will be based mainly in Asian countries, Europe
and Israel,” says Utiger.
www.sp2.uk.com
Filtration and drying are critical final stages in the
production of peptides.
“New delivery systems and chemically modified peptides will
enable new applications for peptides. This, coupled with the
generally lower toxicology risk of natural amino acid building
blocks, will boost larger-volume applications in areas like
diabetes, HIV, hepatitis or inflammatory applications,” he
continues. “In the longer term, Lonza expects robust annual
growth from its peptide business. Peptides, of course, are useful
from a pharmacokinetic standpoint since their behaviour is
similar to that of small molecules but also from an efficiency
standpoint since they are similar to proteins. These aspects,
combined with new delivery systems, make peptides versatile
2
new drug compounds,” he concludes. sp
FURTHER INFORMATION
Lonza Group Ltd
Muenchensteinerstrasse 38
PO Box 4002
Basel
Switzerland
Tel: +41 61 316 81 11
Fax: +41 61 316 91 11
Internet Links:
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.lonza.com
MAY 2006
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