BASEL, Switzerland – Lonza, the world's leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), announced today the appointment of Samanta Cimitan as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Senior Vice President and Member of the Extended Executive Committee. She will join Lonza by January 1, 2027, in a newly created role designed to strengthen customer engagement and commercial delivery across the company.
In this position, Cimitan will lead Strategic Enterprise Account Management, Global Marketing, and Commercial Excellence. She will have direct commercial responsibility for Lonza's strategic accounts and will work through Commercial Excellence and Global Marketing to help shape a unified go-to-market approach across One Lonza. The role is aligned with Lonza's strategy to make it easy for customers to engage with, access, and navigate the company's full end-to-end offering globally across all three business platforms.
Wolfgang Wienand, Chief Executive Officer of Lonza, commented: “Samanta’s appointment to the new role of Chief Commercial Officer is another important step in building One Lonza and making the full power of the Lonza Engine work for our partners in the pharmaceutical industry. Our ambition is clear: Every customer should benefit from the unique breadth of our science, technology and manufacturing capabilities, helping them translate their breakthrough innovations into viable therapies for patients worldwide. Samanta brings deep CDMO expertise, commercial leadership experience and first-hand knowledge of Lonza. She understands what it takes to build trusted partnerships, execute with commercial discipline and create value across the full development and manufacturing journey. I am very pleased to welcome Samanta back to Lonza as we continue to sharpen our commercial focus and deliver on our purpose of making the medicines of tomorrow.”
Cimitan brings extensive business leadership experience across the CDMO industry, with a strong track record in commercial strategy, customer partnership development, and operational execution. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Celonic Group, where she has led the company’s evolution into a focused biologics CDMO and strengthened its commercial, operational, regulatory, and innovation capabilities. Prior to Celonic, Cimitan spent almost 13 years at Lonza in commercial and strategy leadership roles, including as Vice President of Lonza Group Operations Strategy, where she developed and led transformation programs spanning Commercial, R&D, and Operations.
The creation of the CCO role underscores Lonza's commitment to the One Lonza strategy, which aims to provide a seamless experience for customers seeking integrated solutions from drug development to manufacturing. By centralizing commercial leadership, Lonza intends to better leverage its global capabilities and scientific expertise across its three business platforms—biologics, small molecules, and cell and gene therapy.
This strategic move comes as Lonza continues to expand its position in the CDMO market, which is increasingly competitive as pharmaceutical companies outsource complex manufacturing processes. The appointment is expected to enhance Lonza's ability to manage strategic accounts, foster long-term partnerships, and drive commercial growth. It also highlights the importance of customer-centricity in the CDMO industry, where trust and reliability are critical.
For the broader healthcare industry, this leadership change signals a focus on integrated services and customer alignment, which could lead to more efficient drug development and manufacturing timelines. Patients may ultimately benefit from faster access to new therapies as CDMOs like Lonza streamline their commercial operations to better support pharmaceutical innovators.
Lonza, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has a secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited. The company operates across five continents with a team of approximately 20,000 colleagues. In Half-Year 2026, Lonza generated sales of CHF 3.4 billion with a CORE EBITDA of CHF 1.2 billion. More information is available at www.lonza.com.
