Page 168 - CW E-Magazine (12-11-2024)

News from Abroad

CROSS-BORDER COLLABORATION
VTT launches bioeconomy projects worth nearly

€20-mn as part of US NSF’s research programme

Finland-government research orga- linked by bioeconomy and the use of bioproduction will work like any other
nisation, VTT, is participating in two biotechnology in producing both mate- production,” says Tiina Nakari-Setälä,
projects under the US National Science rials and food. VTT’s Vice President of industrial bio-
Foundation’s (NSF’s) Global Centres technology and food.
programme, which aim to solve global Aalto University, the University of
challenges, especially through bioeco- Helsinki, and ten companies also con- The Biofoundry project, which
nomy. Finland is the only EU country tribute with their own research to the starts in early 2025 and lasts until the
selected for the programme. In these projects coordinated by VTT. end of 2029, also includes research
projects, top research organisations institutes and universities from South
from five countries develop solutions The Biofoundry project focuses on Korea, Japan, Great Britain and the US.
that support a climate-neutral future. the development and utilisation of new
types of biological production processes Biotechnology also strongly sup-
The NSF programme opened for based on microbes on an industrial ports the FoodID project. The goal is
Finland in 2024 for the first time. VTT scale. The goal is to enable the replace- to accelerate the transition of the food
Technical Research Centre of Finland ment of particularly fossil-based mate- system in a direction that reduces the
is included in one of the six international rials with bio-based materials. environmental burden caused particularly
consortia that received NSF Global by meat production by combining cellular
Centre status in the application pro- “In the long term, biofoundries will agriculture, including fermentation, and
cess. In addition, several international revolutionise bioeconomy, as materials plant-based innovations. FoodID focuses
proof-of-concept (POC) projects were can be produced from various resources, especially on improving the sensory and
launched as part of the programme. such as biomass and carbon dioxide. In nutritional quality of alternative foods.
the project, VTT develops the equip- The three-year project is implemented
VTT plays an important role in the ment, processes, microbial strains and as a collaboration between the US and
mutually supportive Biofoundry Global data processing required by bioproduc- Finland coordinated by the University
Centre and the FoodID POC projects tion in such a way that in the future, of Nebraska-Lincoln.

CONTRACT MANUFACTURING
Lonza extends ADC supply collaboration with pharma major

Swiss contract manufacturer, Lonza, (mAb) manufacturing services for a filling for the ADC molecule targeting
has announced a long-term extension of new ADC therapy. hard-to-treat cancers.
its collaboration with an unnamed
major biopharmaceutical partner for The new Visp bioconjugation suite The collaboration has also been
commercial-scale manufacture of ADCs will occupy approximately 800-m of extended to include long-term manu-
2
(Antibody-Drug Conjugates). manufacturing space and will support facturing services for a new ADC tar-
the manufacture, handling, and con- geting solid tumours. Under the terms
“The extended agreement will ex- tainment of highly-potent modalities. of the new agreement, Lonza will manu-
pand the dedicated bioconjugation foot- The new suite is expected to be opera- facture the mAb at Lonza’s biologics
print for the customer through the con- tional in 2027. The customer-dedicated facility in Porriño (Spain), occupying
struction of a new bioconjugation suite suite further extends Lonza’s relation- a majority of the site’s manufacturing
at Lonza’s Ibex Biopark in Visp (Swit- ship with the customer, which already capacity. The ADC will then be conju-
zerland),” a Lonza press note informed. consists of an integrated supply of the gated in the new dedicated large-scale
highly potent payload, drug-linker, bioconjugation suites in Visp.
The company will also provide commercial mAb manufacturing, con-
commercial-scale monoclonal antibody jugation services, and drug product Mr. Christian Morello, Vice Presi-

168 Chemical Weekly November 5, 2024

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