Lonza reported sales of CHF 3.6 billion in H1 2025, reflecting CER sales growth of 19 per cent. CORE EBITDA posted a robust margin of 29.6 per cent. The contribution from the recently acquired Vacaville (US) site, the CDMO business delivered CER sales growth of 23.1 per cent .

CDMO sales in H1 benefited from an H1-weighted Vacaville performance and strong momentum in the Mammalian, Bioconjugates and Small Molecules Technology Platforms, with Bioscience returning to healthy growth. This positive momentum was partially offset by lower sales from Cell & Gene Technologies (CGT) and Microbial against a high comparison in H1 2024 and an H2-weighted delivery in 2025.

For Full-Year 2025, Lonza overall expects continued high utilization of its commercial assets with strong operational delivery and sustained commercial contracting across technologies of its CDMO business.

There is continuing customer interest in the Vacaville large-scale mammalian drug substance facility, with multiple customer negotiations ongoing and further signings expected soon.

Lonza also saw a high level of utilization in its mammalian small-scale assets in H1 2025 with good visibility for the remainder of the year, while closely monitoring the biotech funding environment and regulatory developments in the US, which may have an impact specifically on emerging technologies such as CGT.

As previously communicated, Lonza continues to monitor the evolving geopolitical and macroeconomic landscape. Based on current knowledge, the business expects no material financial impact from US trade policies and remains confident it can support customers to mitigate the potential impact of tariffs.

Lonza’s new highly potent API4 facility in Visp (CH) successfully commenced operations in Q1 2025 and ramp-up activities are progressing as planned. The large-scale mammalian drug substance facility, also located in Visp, successfully commenced GMP operations at the end of H1. At the Vacaville site, the first phase of capital expenditures to upgrade the site’s automation level and enhance its multi-purpose capabilities is well underway. Operations at Lonza’s new commercial-scale aseptic drug product facility in Stein (CH) are on track to begin in 2027, in line with the updated timeline.

On 1 April, Lonza successfully went live with its simplified and streamlined operating model to support its new One Lonza strategy. Centered around the Lonza Engine, the new operating model is designed to enhance customer experience, provide scalability for future growth and strengthen Lonza’s integrated multi-technology offering.

Outlook 2025

Lonza upgrades its Outlook for FY 2025 for the CDMO business to CER sales growth of 20-21% and a CORE EBITDA margin of 30-31%. Excluding the business at Vacaville, which is expected to contribute around half a billion CHF in sales, Lonza expects low-teens percentage organic CER sales growth and margin improvement in its CDMO business. In line with this Outlook, Lonza expects sales in H2 2025 to be higher than in H1 with the CORE EBITDA margin at a similar level in H1 and H2.