Index Ventures is an investment firm with a current stake in 135 companies. Amongst these are 21 Life Science firms who, as part of the deal, could benefit from Lonza as a biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO).
However, Lonza spokesman Dominik Werner told Biopharma-Reporter.com though the deal would include any future companies Index invests in, “at this moment in time and at the beginning of the collaboration we cannot quantify exactly.”
He continued to say all such work would be handled within Lonza’s existing network and infrastructure, and there are no plans to invest in further technology or staff to service the contract.
Lonza was selected based on previous work, Kevin Johnson, Partner at Index, said in a statement. “Lonza has manufactured the majority of the antibody products I've worked on in the last 20 years and proved to be an excellent partner.”
Werner added: “This agreement shows that Lonza’s value to a company’s product development pipeline is being recognized more widely by investors in biotech companies. It also demonstrates our ability to offer world-class expression platforms in combination with secure manufacturing capabilities for the complete product lifecycle.”
Index’ investment includes Molecular Partners, who recently struck a deal with Roche over its ‘smaller large molecule’ DARPin technology, and Aegerion Pharmaceuticals. Previously the investment firm has been involved with firms including Addex Pharma, Genmab and PanGenetics - now part of Abbott.
The partnership will allow these small biotechs “to benefit as though they were much larger organisations,” Johnson added.