The Swiss group tweeted on Tuesday that Lonza LONN. S is planning in selling its two manufacturing sites based in France and Scotland. These manufacturing sites of Lonza produces liquid-filled hard capsules as well as soft gels to NextPharma, a European pharmaceutical contract manufacturer.

On this tweet, Lonza reacted and released a statement that with this divestment, the company plans to exit the pharma market for the manufacturing of both soft gels as well as liquid-filled hard capsules. The statement also included that the company will also try to retain the capability of the company for the feasibility studies as a part of the technology selection offering.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed in the statement which is subject to relevant conditions and regulatory approvals but it is expected that the deal will be closed in the first quarter of this year (2021). The sites being sold by the Lonza will employ around 390 permanent staff in total (260 staff at Ploermel, France and 130 staff at Edinburgh, Scotland).

As the Lonza is exiting the pharma market as a manufacturer of the soft gels and oral dose drugs as liquid-filled capsules, the NextPharma is going to include both the pharma products in its manufacturing menu with proud.

However, Lonza on the other hand will continue to deliver lipid capsules in the market branded as Licaps for nutrition.

The Lonza is going to invest majorly in its global eight sites in Belgium, France, the United States, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Japan and China and make sure to boost its capsule manufacturing with an aim of 15% in total which will rise to be around 30 million capsules annually. The capsules will remain to be on the fixture of the company (Lonza) and the investment will be around $93 million for boosting its all eight of the manufacturing sites.