Lonza Houston, Inc., a global provider of biological, cell and viral gene therapy manufacturing, and Benitec Biopharma, biopharma company commercializing a gene-silencing technology, DNA -directed RNA interference (ddRNAi), have entered into a manufacturing services agreement to develop a scalable manufacturing process for Benitec's ddRNAi-based, Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV)-delivered products intended for therapeutic use in humans.
 
Lonza will work develop a cost-effective, scalable and robust suspension culture-based manufacturing platform to enable the production of sufficient material to meet the potential demand for treating diseases that affect millions of people such as hepatitis C.
 
Benitec's vice president of manufacturing, Dr. Claudia Kloth, said, "As our lead ddRNAi-based hepatitis C therapy TT-034 continues to advance in clinical studies, Lonza is an ideal partner for us to optimize our large-scale production process based on its solid expertise and track record in process development and production of AAV-based gene therapeutics."
 
Andreas Weiler, PhD, head of Emerging Technologies for Lonza's Pharma&Biotech segment said, "This agreement with Benitec continues the development of our robust and large-scale AAV platform for the production of AAV-based viral gene therapies. Lonza will utilize our cGMP manufacturing knowledge and world-class quality systems to help Benitec develop these promising novel therapeutics for patients."