Strategic Partnership: Iconovo’s Long-Term Collaboration with Lonza
By Olesia Karvetskaia, Chief Operating Officer
July 7, 2026
Anders Månsson, CEO of Iconovo
Some leaders build companies; others build constellations of partners—and Iconovo CEO Anders Månsson firmly belongs in the second camp. In this interview, he shares how deep, strategic collaborations with industry leaders like Lonza can shape technology access, global positioning, and even a company’s fundraising power.
You’ve built companies around partnerships with big pharma, CDMOs and KOLs. What makes a great strategic partner for you?
As a person who has worked both for large multinationals and smaller biotech companies with 10-50 employees, I know there is a vast difference in how you must operate. In a small company you must replace the expertise and capabilities you may have in-house in a large company with outsourcing. One can take different views on this outsourcing, and in incubator type environments we are often encouraged to find local and small-scale specialized outsourcing partners for each outsourcing area. I do not necessarily agree with this strategy… For areas of strategic importance, like key technologies and capabilities, I would rather go for “partnering” with a leading global organization, renowned for excellence in its field, and perhaps enter into a more strategic collaboration for continuous projects, rather than itemizingprogress and trusting a myriad of small-scale local providers.
Iconovo has a strategic collaboration with Lonza, our Venture Road partner. What makes this partnership particularly valuable for both sides?
That is correct - At Iconovo we are entering into such a strategic collaboration with Lonza for precisely these reasons. In the areas of biologics and vaccines, areas which are of increasing interest for us, we are entering into a strategic collaboration with Lonza to get access to their state-of-the-art technology and capabilities in spray-drying, which is a technology required for Dry Powder Inhalation formulation of large molecules. The added benefit of such a collaboration for the smaller company, like Iconovo in this case, is also that it is seen as more global and capable because of its collaboration with a larger renowned partner, like Lonza. For the larger partner, provided that the smaller partnering company haspossibly narrow but deep expertise in a particular area, there are also opportunities for better positioning in the area of interest. So, there is certainly the potential for mutual benefit here!
How do partnerships like the one with Lonza influence Iconovo’s ability to raise capital and build trust in global markets?
Well, at least for partnering but possibly for financing too, it is obviously a great advantage image wise to be working in a tightly knit collaboration with a large leader in a technology field of particular importance for your strategy, especially an industry leader who is already a known and trusted entity. Entering into a long-term strategic collaboration rather than just outsourcing item by item, also allows for joint business development and solicitation of commercial partnerships in areas and circumstances in which there can be mutual benefits and synergies. Also, a relationship develops with time and the trust that is generated over time. You might not even see the full potential of the relationship from day one.
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