Roche and Lonza Announce Opt-in for Singapore Manufacturing Facility

Roche and Lonza Announce Opt-in for Singapore Manufacturing Facility


Roche and Lonza announced today that Genentech Singapore Pte. Ltd. ("Genentech Singapore"), a wholly-owned member of the Roche Group, elected to exercise an option to purchase from Lonza its cell culture biologic manufacturing facility in Singapore. The facility, which is mechanically complete, will be merged with Genentech Singapore's existing biologic manufacturing facility.

As part of the integration between Roche's and Genentech's combined technical operations, the biotechnology production facilities in Singapore currently operating under the Genentech name will later this year operate under the name of Roche Singapore Technical Operations. Lonza will continue to build up its own large-scale mammalian manufacturing plant in Singapore, which will come on-stream in 2011.

The Singapore manufacturing facility is acquired for a purchase price of USD 290 mio plus additional milestone payments of USD 70 mio. It is expected to produce Avastin (bevacizumab) bulk drug substance, has 80,000 liters of fermentation capacity and is located on approximately 10 acres with an option for up to 20 additional acres. Genentech Singapore's existing 1,000-liter E.coli manufacturing facility is expected to receive FDA licensure for bulk drug production of Lucentis (ranibizumab) injection in 2010. The combined Singapore operations will play a key role in Roche's global manufacturing network.

With the exercise of the option and resultant merger, approximately 230 Lonza employees will join Genentech Singapore Technical Operations, for a total site headcount of approximately 325. Lonza continues to employ over 80 people working at its own mammalian manufacturing plant and plans to ramp up this number to over 300 employees in the next 12 months and beyond.

"We are very pleased to exercise our option to purchase from Lonza the biologic manufacturing facility that Lonza built and to combine it with our current production plant in Singapore. As part of our globally integrated Genentech and Roche manufacturing network, this world-class operation in Singapore will play a major role in bringing important medicines to the patients who need them," said Jim Miller, vice president and general manager, Genentech Singapore. "Lonza has proven to be a valuable partner in our efforts to build our manufacturing capacity and we greatly appreciate the achievements of the many Lonza and Genentech teams who have made this project a success, in addition to the continued support of the Singapore Economic Development Board. We welcome our new Lonza colleagues to the Roche Group and look forward to their contributions to our continued success in Singapore."

"We are happy to have built and handed over a state-of-the-art facility to Genentech and to close the project both on time and on budget. We believe Lonza successfully proved its engineering capabilities and its unique know-how in starting up and operating complex biopharmaceuticals manufacturing facilities," said Mike Brown, VP Operations for Lonza Biologics Singapore. "The handover of the facility to Genentech went smoothly and was characterized by mutual respect and professionalism. Lonza will continue to operate its own 4 x 20,000 liters mammalian manufacturing and process development facility and Cell Therapy unit in Singapore, to come on stream in 2011."

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About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche's personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2008, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested almost 9 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 45.6 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly-owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com.

About Lonza
Lonza is one of the world's leading suppliers to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries. Its products and services span its customers' needs from research to final product manufacture. Lonza is the global leader in the production and support of active pharmaceutical ingredients both chemically as well as biotechnologically. Biopharmaceuticals are one of the key growth drivers of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Lonza has strong capabilities in large and small molecules, peptides, amino acids and niche bioproducts which play an important role in the development of novel medicines and healthcare products. Lonza is a leader in cell-based research, endotoxin detection and cell therapy manufacturing. Lonza is also a leading provider of value chemical and biotech ingredients to the nutrition, hygiene, preservation, agro and personal care markets.

Lonza is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. In 2008, Lonza had sales of CHF 2.937 billion. Further information can be found at www.lonza.com.