Bär & Karrer Advises Lonza on the Entering into a Strategic Joint Venture with Chr. Hansen for Developing and Manufacturing Live Biotherapeutic Products

On 2 April 2019, Lonza, a leading pharma contract manufacturing company, and Chr. Hansen, a leading global bioscience company, announced that they have signed an agreement to establish a 50/50 joint venture to pioneer the live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) industry and position themselves as the leading contract development and manufacturing partner (CDMO) for biotech and pharma customers. The joint venture brings together best-in-class, complementary capabilities and will be the first CDMO globally to provide a full supply chain that offers manufacturing of bacteria strains for therapeutic use. The joint venture will be a 50/50 controlled legal entity that will operate from its headquarters in Basel (CH) and have production facilities in Denmark and Switzerland. A phased investment of approximately EUR 90 million will be deployed over three years to build cGMP-compliant pharma production capabilities. The joint venture will upgrade existing facilities in Hørsholm (DK) and equip new facilities in Basel (CH) to serve pre-clinical to phase II projects. Further facilities for phase III and commercial manufacturing will be developed as the pipeline matures. The joint venture is expected to be largely self-funding after the production set-up has been established.

Bär & Karrer acts as legal advisor to Lonza. The team includes Urs Kägi, Nadina Duss, Michael Bänziger, Matthias Tanner (all M&A/Corporate and Commercial) and Markus Wang (IP).