Lonza receives £30m grant for Thames Valley expansion

Swiss pharma manufacturing firm Lonza has secured £30m of funding through the UK government’s Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund to expand and relocate into a specialist life sciences campus. EG revealed last year that the Basel-headquartered firm had acquired British Gas’s former headquarters at Thames Valley Park in Reading for £60m.  It plans to transform the 12-acre site into 400,000 sq ft current good manufacturing practice facility with heavy power requirements. The firm acquired its existing location at 234 Bath Road, Slough, in 1996 and has invested £16m in its expansion, with the construction of a 60,000 sq ft space adjacent to the existing building in 2011. The hub now spans some 226,000 sq ft. Lonza will join a cluster of health, life sciences and tech companies at the Reading campus, including Oracle, Microsoft and serviced office space provider Regus. Stefan Egli, head of the mammalian business unit for biologics at Lonza, said: “We are grateful to the UK government for its support as we seek to relocate and expand our UK footprint and capability. “Our biologics site in Slough and its workforce – now comprising more than 1,000 people – has been an integral part of our global business for more than 25 years. During this time, the site has supported both large pharma and small biotech customers in bringing innovative therapies to life for their patients. Science minister Lord Vallance said: “As part of our new industrial strategy, we will set out a plan to cement this sector’s best-in-class status, and working with companies like Lonza will be a core part of that ambition.” Earlier this year, Lonza withdrew its plans to establish a biologics hub in Oxford. The company was previously in talks to move into a “lab-ready” 25,457 sq ft space within the Iversen Building on the Oxford Science Park.  Image © Thames Valley Park