RION Partners with Lonza for Scalable Exosome-Based Drug Manufacturing

RION, a commercial and clinical-stage regenerative medicine company, has engaged Lonza, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), to provide cGMP manufacturing and technical support for commercial-scale production of Rion’s Purified Exosome Product (PEP) drug substance for late phase clinical supply and beyond.

RION has developed a proprietary biomanufacturing platform enabling scaled production of platelet-derived exosomes. Under the terms of the agreement, Lonza will manufacture PEP drug substance at its manufacturing facility in Houston (US), while RION will leverage Lonza’s extracellular vesicles expertise and capabilities to operationalize its process at scale.

Atta Behfar, Cofounder and CEO, RION, said: “This collaboration with Lonza ensures that our proprietary exosome manufacturing platform can be scaled to meet clinical and future commercial demand. RION’s breakthrough in exosome biomanufacturing now paired with Lonza’s global infrastructure allows us to bring this biologics-based innovation to patients rapidly and reliably, while staying true to our mission of affordable access.”

“We are pleased to support RION’s groundbreaking work in exosome-based therapies,” added Davide Zocco, Commercial Development Head for Exosomes and mRNA Technologies, Specialized Modalities, Lonza. “Through our collaboration with RION, we will apply our expertise to support the manufacture of PEP drug substance, aiming to help accelerate the availability of innovative treatments to patients worldwide.”