Swiss-headquartered Lonza claims it operates the largest biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) network in the United States. At the center of the company’s U.S. operations is its Vacaville, California facility, which it says is one of the world’s largest biologics manufacturing sites.

On Wednesday, Lonza executives hosted analysts in Vacaville for its Capital Markets Day 2026, laying out the CDMO’s strategy for driving future growth. The company touted Vacaville’s “world-scale U.S. biologics capacity” at the 956,000-square-foot site, part of Lonza’s Integrated Biologics division, and made the case that it is well-positioned to capitalize on large-scale mammalian demand.

The facility, acquired from Roche for $1.2 billion in 2024, is dedicated to late-stage clinical and commercial mammalian manufacturing with 12,000L and 25,000L stainless steel bioreactors contributing to a total bioreactor capacity of 332,000L. Lonza claims it is the “only mammalian CDMO with every scale in every major region, and industry leading capacity in the U.S.”

The company expects high-single-digit average annual mammalian pharma product sales growth through 2030, and a 25% aggregate increase in mammalian molecules in the preclinical and clinical pipeline, according to William Blair analysts.

“Lonza currently manufactures approximately 30% of the 80 mammalian blockbuster drugs on the market and expects to manufacture approximately 30%-40% of an estimated 110 blockbusters by 2030, with improved share in part driven by the company’s attractive U.S. capacity,” the analysts wrote in a Thursday note to investors.

However, for now, sales for the Vacaville facility will remain flat and are not expected to meaningfully contribute to incremental growth until 2028. Still, Lonza said it has “strong customer interest in support of 2030s business.” The CDMO expects Vacaville, its largest commercial integrated biologics site, will reach peak ​sales of up to two billion Swiss ​francs ($2.4 ⁠billion) in the early 2030s.

“While the revenue contribution will build over time as products are transferred, validated, and ramped up to commercial volumes, management has indicated that that overall progress is ahead of expectations, with the first product successfully transferred,” William Blair analysts said.

Under the terms of the 2024 Vacaville acquisition, products previously manufactured at the site are to be supplied by Lonza to Roche with minimum volume commitments over the medium term, which will ultimately phase out over time as the facility transitions to its own customers.

CEO Wolfgang Wienand noted that, based on new Vacaville customer contracts, Lonza has “already been able to fully compensate the outgoing business of Roche, so that we — until 2028 — kind of have certainty to remain somewhere around a half a billion Swiss francs in revenues.”

Making Vacaville a flexible, high-performing CDMO site

Lonza has committed approximately $500 million in upgrades to the quality system and IT infrastructure at Vacaville which the company said is ongoing for “CDMO readiness.” The company is enhancing the site’s capabilities and throughput and intends to make additional investments to upgrade Vacaville’s automation and multi-purpose capabilities.

“We continue to invest into the flexibility of the asset to make it a truly flexible, high-performing CDMO asset,” Wienand told analysts, pointing to the 95% retention rate at Vacaville as well as the first successful tech transfer and FDA inspection of the facility. “It’s great quality as you would expect it to be from a site coming from Roche and Genentech, but we actually will invest so that it becomes even more efficient going forward.”

CFO Philippe Deecke said Vacaville is “progressing well” in the ongoing upgrades required to increase the operational flexibility needed to operate as a CDMO site, with additional upgrade measures requiring a targeted shutdown in the second half of 2026.

“We are on track with our construction — we told you [previously] that there is a shutdown for one of the assets in Vacaville, this is ongoing,” Deecke added.

Gordon Bates, Lonza’s head of integrated biologics, said the facility must be adapted to “accommodate a much broader range of products than that which we inherited.” In particular, he noted Lonza needs “to be able to get more gases into the cell lines in the bioreactor — that setup wasn’t there, so we need to adapt the bioreactor to be able to do that.”

With commercial titers expected to improve, Vacaville will also need more capacity to hold buffers and media, according to Bates.

“Purification, generally, is the bottleneck in the industry at the moment,” he added. “We’ll increase the size of columns that we have to be able to make sure that we deal with some of those bottleneck challenges, as well as some kind of infrastructure, warehouse, QC expansion and some of the control systems to allow us to be able to move products around the network because it’s a Lonza platform standard.”

Large-scale mammalian capacity remains critical          

Variable volumes will require a range of manufacturing asset scales to cover total demand in future years, Bates said, who told analysts that Vacaville’s two major production lines are mid-scale (12,000L stainless steel bioreactors) and large-scale (25,000L stainless steel bioreactors). In absolute terms, he said large-scale capacity will remain dominant.

“Rumors of the death of large-scale mammalian capacity are over-exaggerated,” Bates observed. He added that while global mammalian commercial drug substance demand will span all ranges by 2030, approximately 80% of volume will require large-scale manufacturing capacity. 

On Wednesday, analysts had an opportunity to tour the Vacaville facility as part of Capital Markets Day.  According to William Blair analysts, the tour included the site’s two main production buildings, quality control, and the warehouse, emphasizing upgrades for CDMO readiness to serve a broader base of customers.

“The tour showcased areas where Lonza is leveraging single-use bags to streamline changeovers across different products,” the analysts wrote in a note to investors. “Lonza is adding capabilities that will help the company better serve a broader client base at scale, such as adding new modular freezer units for product storage in the warehouse. We also saw opportunities for the company to streamline operations with technology enhancements (e.g., a new portable analyzer to test raw materials for quality).”

Overall, William Blair analysts said they came away with “greater appreciation” for the scale, complexity, and efficiency of Vacaville’s operations.