Lithuania's Northway Biotech has opened a €61mn cell therapy and personalised medicine centre in Vilnius, expanding the country's capacity to develop and manufacture advanced therapies, the company announced on September 4.

Lithuania aims to grow its life sciences sector to 5% of GDP by 2030. Northway says the 3,500 sq metre facility is the first dedicated centre of its kind in the Baltic states and will employ around 100 life sciences professionals.

The Innovative Cell Therapy and Personalised Medicine Centre forms part of the BIO CITY III development and will operate under the Northway Biotech brand. It will have up to 20 independent cGMP-compliant manufacturing lines, alongside quality-control laboratories and specialised cleanroom infrastructure.

The facility will develop and manufacture autologous and allogeneic cell therapies, personalised therapeutic vaccines, regenerative medicine applications and 3D human tissue technologies. Northway said its first customers have already been secured and contracts are in place.

"Fifteen years ago, we did not have a €61mn centre – we had people and ambition," Northway Group founder Prof Vladas Algirdas Bumelis said.

"What seemed like the future of medicine 15 years ago is now being created here in Lithuania," he added.

Unlike conventional pharmaceutical production, some of the centre's manufacturing processes could be dedicated to an individual patient, using their own cells and targeting their particular disease.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said the project demonstrated that Lithuania could be "not only observers, but creators at the global frontier of science".

The €61mn project is being financed through private funds and a loan from Lithuania's national development bank ILTE under its Milijardas verslui initiative.

Northway's BIO CITY ecosystem also includes biologics development and manufacturing operations and a gene therapy centre.

The wider Northway Group comprises 17 companies operating in biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, private medicine, wellness and investment. Its biotechnology businesses employ more than 200 specialists and work with over 100 partners worldwide.