Lonza Houston’s Biotech Facility, Pearland, Texas

Lonza broke the ground on its biotech facility for viral and immunotherapy development and manufacturing in Pearland on 29 March 2016. Credit: Pearland Economic Development Corporation.

The state-of-the-art facility will be located on an 11-acre site on Kirby Drive in Pearland’s Lower Kirby District. Credit: Pearland Economic Development Corporation.

The construction of Lonza’s state-of-the-art biotech facility was approved on 17 December 2015. Credit: Pearland Economic Development Corporation.

In April 2018, viral and cell therapy manufacturer Lonza Houston finished building a biotech facility for immunotherapy development and manufacturing in Pearland, Texas.

The City of Pearland and the Pearland Economic Development Corporation (PEDC) approved the project’s construction in December 2015. The build fulfils the city’s long-lasting goal of establishing a broad spectrum of medical and life sciences organisations in the region.

A ground-breaking ceremony was held in March 2016 for the project. This was attended by Pearland’s Mayor Tom Reid, city manager Clay Pearson, state representative Ed Thompson, Lonza Houston’s site director Ricardo Jimenez, Lonza’s operations for emerging technologies senior vice-president (SVP) Stefan Troger, and the PEDC board chair Rushi Patel and board members Reid Wendell, Brandon Dansby and Lucy Stevener.

The facility was officially opened in April 2018.

Lonza Houston’s Pearland biotech facility details

The state-of-the-art facility is located on an 11-acre site on Kirby Drive in Pearland’s Lower Kirby District. It has a total floor space of 300,000ft² (27,870m²) and is designed to accommodate office spaces, a process development unit, quality control laboratories and a fully segregated fill-and-finish suite.

The facility contains independent modular cleanrooms with a total capacity of up to 2,000l-scale production in single-use bioreactors.

The cleanrooms were designed to manufacture cell therapy products to meet growing demand in the US and European markets. The facility doubles the company’s current capacity for the production of viral gene and virally modified therapeutics.

The facility initially created more than 80 jobs and is expected to create more than 200 jobs in administration, manufacturing, process development and quality assurance by the end of 2018.

Lonza built the facility in collaboration with Pinchal and Co, Creed Commercial Development, ARCO Design/Build and CRB.

Marketing commentary on Lonza

Lonza is a global leader and trusted supplier in the pharma, biotech and speciality ingredients markets. Based in Basel, Switzerland, the company is focused on advanced manufacturing, high-quality control systems, regulatory expertise, and research and development (R&D) capabilities.

The company’s products and services include active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), stem cell therapies, drinking water sanitisers, vitamin B compounds, organic personal care ingredients, industrial preservatives and microbial control solution to combat viruses, bacteria and other dangerous pathogens.

The company also provides agricultural services and products.