Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB) has entered a global collaboration agreement with Lonza, expanding its product array of cell culture media for biopharma manufacturing processes.
 
SSB will assume global sales and marketing of Lonza’s media and buffers used in the manufacture of protein-based therapeutics and vaccines, and Lonza will continue provide development, manufacture and logistics operations for these products. The cell culture media, sold in liquid or powder form, will be converted to packaged forms as ready-to-use, prefilled SSB sterile single-use bags. The products will be sold under both brands in a co-branding arrangement.
 
“I am very pleased that we will now be adding a market-leading, high-quality array of media and buffers to our product offering,” said SSB’s member of the board, Reinhard Vogt. “Just like our single-use bags and bioreactors, culture media are critical to the success of safe and efficient manufacture of drug materials. The demand for ready-to-use and innovative products is accordingly high. In the manufacture of biologicals, our customers will benefit from obtaining fully integrated single-use solutions for their entire cell culture process all from a single source.”
 
“For Lonza this agreement provides great upside potential as it will allow us to capture additional value from our Media Business in the form of additional revenue leading to higher capacity utilization,” said Lukas Utiger, chief operating officer of Lonza Bioscience. “Lonza and Sartorius are a great fit as both partners bring complementary strengths to the benefit of our customers.”