First in the Baltics: Northway Biotech opens €61 million cell therapy and personalized medicine CDMO in Vilnius

Building on more than 22 years of CDMO experience across biologics and advanced therapies, Northway Biotech is significantly expanding its development and manufacturing capacity with a new 3,500 sq. m facility featuring up to 20 independent cGMP manufacturing lines and first customer programs already secured.

The first dedicated Innovative Cell Therapy and Personalized Medicine Center of its kind in the Baltic States has opened in Vilnius, Lithuania, marking a major expansion of Northway Biotech’s CDMO capabilities in advanced therapies. The Northway Group has invested €61 million in the new 3,500 sq. m facility within the broader BIO CITY III development.

The center significantly expands Northway Biotech’s established CDMO platform across mammalian and microbial biologics, gene therapy, and cell-based technologies, adding substantial new development and cGMP manufacturing capacity for advanced and personalized therapies. It will support biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, university hospitals, and research institutions and begins operations with its first customers already on board and contracts in place.

The facility brings together specialized infrastructure and technologies for the development and cGMP manufacturing of autologous and allogeneic cell-based therapies, personalized therapeutic vaccines, regenerative medicine applications, and 3D human tissue technologies. Its segregated manufacturing infrastructure enables multiple cell-based products and processes to be handled in parallel while maintaining stringent requirements for product identity, quality, traceability, and contamination control.

A €61 million investment scaling 15 years of specialized expertise

The opening also marks a significant milestone for Kamieninių ląstelių tyrimų centras (Stem Cell Research Center), the company operating the new facility under the Northway Biotech brand, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. Founded in 2011 by Prof. Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, the company has spent 15 years building practical experience in cGMP environments and systematically developing its expertise in stem cell research, cell-based technologies, and advanced therapeutic applications.

Fifteen years ago, we did not have a €61 million center - we had people and ambition. Over the years, we have built practical experience, grown our team, and advanced our cell technology capabilities. Today, we are systematically taking all of this to an entirely new scale. What seemed like the future of medicine 15 years ago is now being created here in Lithuania.

Prof. Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, founder of the Northway Group

The significance of the center for Lithuania is also highlighted by the President of the Republic of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda.

This center is about people. About scientists who will be able to stay in Lithuania and work with technologies that are shaping the future of medicine. About patients for whom personalized medicine is not an abstract concept, but a real treatment option. And about all of us as a country, proving that we can be not only observers, but creators at the global frontier of science.

Gitanas Nausėda, President of the Republic of Lithuania

Up to 20 manufacturing lines for advanced and personalized therapies

The new center will operate up to 20 independent cGMP-compliant manufacturing lines. It features quality control laboratories, advanced cleanroom systems, and segregated infrastructure designed for the manufacturing of highly sensitive cell therapies.

In personalized therapies, an individual manufacturing process may be dedicated to a single patient – their cells and their disease.

We are accustomed to traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing, where a single process produces medicines for large numbers of patients. Here, in some cases, an entire manufacturing process may be dedicated to just one person. It is a completely different pharmaceutical model - and this is precisely the kind of medicine this center was built for.

Prof. Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, founder of the Northway Group

The center’s services are targeted at international biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, university hospitals, and research centers. With first customers already on board, Northway Biotech will provide development and manufacturing services for advanced therapies from the new Vilnius facility.

From cancer-targeting cells to longevity medicine

The new facility will enable Northway Biotech to significantly scale up its capabilities in cell and tissue technologies.

One area involves technologies in which a patient’s immune cells are modified to enable them to recognize and destroy specific cancer cells. In parallel, 3D human tissue technologies are being developed to create more physiologically relevant tissue models, study drug effects, and advance regenerative medicine solutions.

Northway’s expertise in cell biology and tissue engineering will also be further applied to regenerative medicine, including research into the mechanisms of tissue regeneration and ways to preserve or restore tissue function. The development of personalized therapeutic vaccine technologies will also continue on a larger scale.

A €61 million step toward the 5% of GDP target

Northway’s investment contributes to Lithuania’s ambition for the life sciences sector to account for 5% of the country’s GDP by 2030.

The new center is expected to bring together approximately 100 life sciences professionals. The €61 million investment project is financed through private funds and a loan from Lithuania’s national development bank ILTE under the Milijardas verslui (Billion for Business) initiative.

Today, Lithuania is not only a user of advanced technologies, but also a country where they are created and developed. The opening of the BIO CITY center is an important step in strengthening Lithuania’s biomedical ecosystem and our position in the international market. We have a strong foundation for the sector’s continued growth - Lithuania is home to highly qualified professionals in biomedicine, medicine, and science, while growing investment demonstrates international confidence in our potential.

Edvinas Grikšas, Minister of the Economy and Innovation

The new center becomes another part of the BIO CITY ecosystem being developed by Northway.

BIO CITY I brings together Northway Biotech’s mammalian and microbial biologics development and manufacturing capabilities across Vilnius and Boston, while BIO CITY II is home to the gene therapy center. BIO CITY III now significantly expands capacity in cell therapy and personalized medicine, further strengthening Northway Biotech’s integrated CDMO platform across biologics and advanced therapies.

ABOUT THE NORTHWAY GROUP

The Northway Group comprises 17 companies with more than 20 years of experience across biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, private medicine, wellness, and investment.

Its biotechnology cluster, operating under the Northway Biotech brand, consists of seven companies: five in Lithuania, one in the United Kingdom, and one in the United States. The biotechnology companies employ more than 200 highly qualified professionals, while Northway works with more than 100 partners worldwide, including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, research institutions, and universities. Its key export markets are Europe, North America, and Asia.

Northway Biotech is a member of the Lithuanian consortium for cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In recognition of its leadership in biologics development and manufacturing, the company received an Outsourced Pharma 2025 CDMO Leadership Award in the global biologics CDMO category.