Lonza entered the non-exclusive business collaboration in an aim to remove the current roadblocks developers of personalized therapeutics often face in the supply chain as drug products prepare for commercial launch, according to the company.
Alberto Santagostino, head of cell and gene technologies at Lonza, told us, “The cell and gene therapy industry is at a global inflection point, with a need to mature and industrialize to grow and deliver on its potential.”
“The Vineti-Lonza partnership is in pursuit of an end-to-end ordering and manufacturing process that will bring optimization and standardization to cell and gene therapy manufacturing, allowing the industry to grow and scale as efficiently and simply as possible,” he explained.
The collaboration will see the integration of the Vineti Personalized Therapy Management Platform with the Lonza Orchestrate capacity management system.
“Vineti’s proven software solution connects and orchestrates the ecosystem responsible for bringing a cell therapy, gene therapy, or personalized cancer vaccine to the patient,” said Santagostino.
Per the partnership, Lonza will be able to offer integrated logistics, scheduling, distribution, chain or condition, chain of custody, chain of identity services, along with its proprietary solutions. These offerings come as Lonza gains access to the Vienti supply chain orchestration (SCO) platform through the partnership.
Santagostino also said that this collaboration is part of Lonza’s wider goal to create a network of partnerships and capabilities that enable a ‘vein-to-vein’ delivery of cell and gene therapies.
The solution developed from the partnership will also be working to provide this integrated system worldwide using Lonza’s manufacturing and Vineti’s network of medical centers.
“Overall, the cell and gene therapy supply chain is complex – involving patients, health care providers, sponsors, pharma companies, white glove couriers, and CDMOs. It has a lot of moving parts and carries a lot of inherent risks,” explained Santagostino.
He stated, “The Lonza-Vineti partnership is designed to address those risks and complexities.”
