34TWENTYFOURSEVENBIOPHARMA Issue 1 / March 2026 In this interview with Gordon Bates, Executive Committee Member and Head of Integrated Biologics at Lonza, we discuss the company’s recent $1.2 billion acquisition of a biologics manufacturing site in Vacaville, California. This strategic investment aims to enhance capacity and meet rising demand in the biopharmaceutical sector. We explore the motivations behind this purchase, its significance in current supply chain trends, and Lonza’s focus on emerging biologics modalities to drive innovation and growth. Lonza has been investing in large-scale biologics manufacturing, including its recent acquisition of a large-scale biologics site in California. What motivated this specific purchase and what factors are driving similar investments? We’re seeing strong demand for commercial manufacturing capacity, and this acquisition strengthens our ability to meet that demand. Lonza has acquired the Vacaville manufacturing site from Roche for USD 1.2 billion. This multi-product cGMP facility is a strategic addition to our network, providing significant new capacity to support the growing global need for high-quality, large-scale mammalian manufacturing. This site has a proven track record of delivering high-quality products, including monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. With approximately 330,000 liters of bioreactor capacity, the Vacaville site is one of the largest biologics manufacturing facilities in the world. It is GMP-approved by both the FDA and EMA and has a strong commercial track record, having produced nine different product families since 2000. In the medium term, Lonza will continue to manufacture products that Roche currently makes at the site with committed volumes already in place. Overall, this is a high-impact acquisition with immediate value and long-term strategic significance. Regarding the California site, how strategically important was it to purchase a location in the United States, particularly amid reshoring, friendshoring and nearshoring trends in the supply chain? The Vacaville site complements our existing biologics facilities on the U.S. East Coast, including our Portsmouth site—and strengthens our broader network across Europe and Asia. What’s especially exciting is that it gives us a solid footprint on the LONZA
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