Today, Lonza and Sanofi announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership to build and operate a large-scale mammalian cell culture facility for monoclonal antibody production in Visp, Switzerland. The large-scale facility will be established through a joint venture with an initial investment of around CHF 290 million shared equally between Lonza and Sanofi. The initial construction phase of the facility will commence in 2017, pending necessary regulatory approvals. The facility is expected to be fully operational by 2020.

The partnership provides both parties with substantial flexibility by using an innovative setup enabling them to optimize biologics production capacity across the whole industry. Bär & Karrer acts as legal advisor to Lonza. The team includes Urs Kägi and Nadina Duss (both M&A/Corporate and Commercial), Mani Reinert (Competition Law) and Markus Wang (IP).