Lonza, Asimov Partner to Advance Scalable Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing

Lonza has entered a strategic collaboration with Asimov aimed at advancing lentiviral vector (LVV) manufacturing for emerging in vivo gene therapy applications.

The partnership brings together Asimov’s LV Edge stable producer cell line technologies with Lonza’s capabilities in process development, scale-up, analytical testing, and GMP manufacturing. The collaboration is designed to help developers address manufacturability earlier in the development process, creating a clearer path to scalable clinical and commercial production.

Current lentiviral vector manufacturing methods largely rely on multi-plasmid transient transfection, a process that can present challenges for scalability and batch-to-batch consistency. The companies believe stable production systems offer a route to more reproducible and controlled LVV manufacturing, particularly as interest grows in in vivo gene therapies where the vector serves as the therapeutic product itself.

Under the collaboration, Lonza and Asimov will focus on developing stable, program-specific manufacturing strategies intended to improve process scalability, product consistency, and manufacturability visibility for both in vivo and ex vivo lentiviral vector programs.

Daniel Palmacci, Head of Specialized Modalities, Lonza, said, “The development of in vivo lentiviral therapies requires design and manufacturing strategy to be considered together from the earliest stages. By combining Asimov’s design and cell line technologies with our process development and GMP manufacturing expertise, we can bring manufacturability considerations earlier into development and provide customers with a more connected path towards scalable clinical and commercial manufacturing.”

Alec Nielsen, co-founder and CEO, Asimov, said, “By pairing LV Edge stable cell lines with Lonza’s manufacturing expertise, developers can get a scalable path from sequence to clinic.”

The companies said they will continue developing a feasibility-first framework spanning transgene optimization, cell line development, process development, advanced analytics, manufacturing scale-up, GMP production, and CMC readiness.