Vertex turns to Lonza for diabetes cell therapy plant

Lonza will build a dedicated facility at its site in New Hampshire to support Vertex’s pipeline of cell therapies targeting type 1 diabetes.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Lonza will collaborate to build the 130,000 square-foot manufacturing facility at the contract development and manufacturing organization’s (CDMO’s) site in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, creating up to 300 jobs. Construction begins this year.

The dedicated facility will support Vertex’s type 1 diabetes candidates, including VX-880, fresh from producing positive results in an ongoing Phase I/II study.

Lonza’s site in Portsmouth, NH. Image c/o Google

VX-880 is an investigational allogeneic cell therapy for type 1 diabetes based on a stem cell-derived islet platform acquired by Vertex in 2019 through the $950 million acquisition of Semma Therapeutics.

The facility will also support VX-264, another early-phase cell therapy targeting type 1 diabetes, but this time based on encapsulating cells in a protective device to be surgically implanted in the body. The candidate is being evaluated without the use of immunosuppressive therapy as the devices are designed to shield the cells from the body’s immune system.

Vertex has invested heavily into its own manufacturing network, opening its Jeffrey Leiden Center for Cell and Genetic Therapies in Boston, Massachusetts in May 2022 and – at the same time – announcing plans to build a 344,000 square-foot expansion at the site at a cost of $595 million.

As for Lonza, its Portsmouth site has seen many expansions since it opened its doors back in 1999. In May 2021, the CDMO invested $220 million at the site to add eight 2,000 L single-use bioreactors. Along with mammalian cell culture capabilities, the site offers 25,000 square feet of allogeneic and autologous cell therapy manufacturing.

The firm confirmed it is constructing additional production capabilities earlier this year, but details were sparse. According to the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority, Lonza will gain an extra 43-acre parcel of land that will house three new buildings totaling approximately 1 million square feet.

“Establishing this strategic partnership with Lonza, a world-class manufacturing organization, is a critical milestone in this journey and underscores our long-term commitment to patients with type 1 diabetes,” said Vertex CEO Reshma Kewalramani.