By Bartosz Dabrowski and Kira Britten
July 22 (Reuters) – Switzerland’s Lonza, the world’s largest contract drug manufacturer, raised the full-year target for its core profit margin to between 33% and 34% on Wednesday, citing strong operational execution and contributions from maturing growth projects in the first half.
It had previously expected its core earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin to expand to more than 32% of sales this year.
In the first half of 2026, Lonza’s main contract drug manufacturing business saw its core EBITDA grow 27.4% in constant currency to 1.17 billion Swiss francs ($1.44 billion).
Lonza is aiming to focus solely on contract manufacturing, having agreed to sell its capsule and health ingredients business to Lone Star Funds in May.
Analysts had projected slightly lower EBITDA of 1.13 billion francs for the core business, a poll compiled by Vara showed.
Sales in the January-June period grew 11.2% in constant currency to 3.37 billion francs, compared with 3.42 billion francs expected by analysts’ consensus.
Lonza said it expected the first-half performance to underpin another solid full-year result, even as growth and profitability are expected to moderate in the second half of the year due to the timing of business activities, particularly in its advanced synthesis unit, and tougher year-ago comparisons.
The company said sales at Vacaville, its key biologics manufacturing site acquired from Roche in 2024, were also weighted towards the first half, reflecting production timing and phasing.
It confirmed the forecast for full-year sales growth of 11% to 12% at constant exchange rates.
Lonza also said it would expand production capacity for antibody-drug conjugates at its Stein site in Switzerland, adding a commercial-scale filling line that is expected to be operational in 2030 under a long-term collaboration agreement with a major pharmaceutical company.
($1 = 0.8128 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Bartosz Dabrowski and Kira Britten, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
