Contract Services
Veranova Welcomes Dr. Scott Zugel as Global VP of Analytical Research Development Operations
Veranova is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Scott Zugel as Global Vice President of Analytical Research Development Operations. Dr. Zugel brings 25 years…
ADMA Biologics Statement on Tariffs
ADMA Biologics, Inc. recently provided a statement on the recent tariffs put in place and reiterated ADMA’s strategic advantage through fully U.S.-based manufacturing operations, commercialization…
Conduit Pharmaceuticals Expands Partnership With Sarborg Limited to Leverage Machine Learning Data Analysis for Pipeline Optimization
Conduit Pharmaceuticals Inc. recently announced that it has entered into an additional license and use agreement with Sarborg Limited to expand the scope of work…
Ethris & Lonza Collaborate to Develop Spray-Dried mRNA Vaccines for Respiratory Disease Prevention
Ethris and Lonza reecently announced a collaboration to develop room-temperature stable, spray-dried formulations of mRNA-based vaccine candidates, designed for mucosal delivery that offer a promising…
FORMULATION FORUM - Lymphatic versus Portal Drug Delivery: An Understanding of Drug Oral Absorption & Food Effect
Jim Huang, PhD, and Shaukat Ali, PhD, say the lymphatic system is a distinctive route that is essential for drug transport and delivery of large and lipophilic molecules by alleviating the challenges in penetrating blood capillaries.
TREND SCOUTING - Anticipating the Future of Pharma
Gregor Deutschle says by implementing a strategic, considerate, and proactive approach to trend forecasting, pharmaceutical service providers can effectively weigh the benefits and challenges of potential trends, invest in those most aligned with customer needs, and avoid the allocation of time and resources in trends that will not provide meaningful ROI.
DRUG DEVELOPMENT - Improving Bioavailability & Solubility in OSDs
Hibreniguss Terefe, PhD, explores the options available to improve bioavailability and solubility and provides guidance to support decision-making when designing oral formulations for poorly soluble drug candidates in early development.
CELL-FREE GENE SYNTHESIS - Eliminating Critical Bottlenecks in Genetic Medicine Development
Marc Unger explores the market trends, challenges, and opportunities new DNA production technologies provide to accelerate genetic advances in healthcare.
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW - Lonza: Driving Innovation & Sustainability: CDMO Trends & the Future of ADCs
Sebastian Stenderup, Executive Director, Head of Commercial EMEA, Lonza, discusses some of the trends CDMOs are currently facing, from the growth of ADCs to the importance of sustainability, and how his company is responding to them.
CLINICAL TRIALS - Need for Accessibility to Meet FDA Guidance for Decentralized Trials
Neil Vivian, MSc, says advances in electronic data collection and analysis are helping to make DCTs more accessible to broader and more diverse patient populations. Further innovations, particularly in artificial intelligence technology, are expected to accelerate these trends.
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW - How Vetter’s Expansion of its Senior Management Team Aligns With Prioritization of Strategic Growth
Vetter’s leadership discusses the company’s vision for strategic restructuring, their insights on Contract Development and Manufacturing trends in 2025, and what this strategic change means for the sustainable growth of the company and its global expansion.
RUV CLOSURES - Daikyo PLASCAP® RUV Closures: Securing Annex 1 Compliance Through Contamination-Controlled Closure Innovation
Jim Thompson, MBA, explains how through a long-standing partnership with Daikyo, West can answer multi-faceted vial stoppering and capping challenges with both Crystal Zenith® (CZ) polymer nested vials and PLASCAP® Ready-to-Use Validated (RUV) press-fit closures.
Bend Bioscience Adds Commercial Spray Drying & Granulation in Georgia
Bend Bioscience recently announced the addition of a commercial-scale spray dryer and a Gerteis dry granulation system at its 120,000-square-foot facility in Gainesville, GA. The…
DDL Launches New GMP Lab for Drug Delivery Testing
DDL, a leading provider of package, product, and material testing services, recently announce the opening of a new Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) laboratory dedicated to…
Apollomics & LaunXP Announce Development & Commercialization Agreement for Vebreltinib
Apollomics Inc. and LaunXP International Co., Ltd. recently announced the parties have entered into an agreement for the development and commercialization in Asia (excluding mainland…
Galatea Bio Secures $25M to Develop Global Biobank & Enable Precision Health at Scale for All
Galatea Bio has secured $25 million in funding to drive discoveries in next-generation genetic analysis, biomarker discovery, and multi-omics disease modeling. Committed to enabling precision health…
Upperton Pharma Solutions Wins Champion Award at 2025 CDMO Leadership Awards in Small Molecule Dosage Form Category
Upperton Pharma Solutions is proud to announce its selection as Champion Winner in the Small Molecule Dosage Form – International category at the 2025 CDMO…
Evestia Clinical Launches as a Market Leading Pharmaceutical Research Specialist Focused on Clinical Trials in Oncology & Rare Diseases
Evestia Clinical has today been announced as the new identity of EMAS Pharma, as it sets its sights on rapid growth as a provider of…
Candel Therapeutics & IDEA Pharma Announce Strategic Partnership to Advance Path-to-Market Commercialization Efforts for CAN-2409
Candel Therapeutics, Inc. together with IDEA Pharma, a Division of SAI MedPartners (IDEA) recently announced a strategic commercial partnership. Under this agreement, IDEA will provide…
Curia Announces Expansions to Global Network of Sterile Fill-Finish Sites
Curia Global, Inc. recently announced expansion plans to its Glasgow, UK, facility and provided updates on the ongoing expansion in Albuquerque, NM. Curia’s sterile fill-finish…
Contract Services Market Overview
Increasing patent expirations of major drugs, the growing burden of chronic diseases, and elevated global awareness of vaccines are leading to a surge in outsourcing formulation development services. Industry experts say these trends put a value on the global pharmaceutical CDMO Market at $160.12 billion in 2020, and could reach $236.61 billion by 2026, while the North American CDMO market is expected to reach $101.1 billion by 2030. As more pharma/biopharma companies opt to partner with CDMOs, much of this activity is occurring in the early phase of development with the goal of overcoming risk, along with saving time and money as a drug passes through the development pipeline.
Sectors of the CDMO market – sterile injectables, prefilled syringes, biologics APIs, and viral vectors – are expected to expand quickly, driven by an accelerating shift in the pharmaceutical market toward innovative biologic and cell and gene therapy products. Nonetheless, small molecules will continue to represent the majority of prescribed drugs for the foreseeable future and thus are the major growth driver for the CDMO market.
Who Uses Contract Services?
Experts see a strong correlation between size of a company and its likelihood to outsource. In 2017, manufacturing of 20% of newly approved drugs was outsourced by Big Pharma; this increases to 80% of all manufacturing being contracted out by small biotech/pharma. And all 15 newly approved drugs in 2017 owned by small companies were supplied by CDMOs.
Rare diseases, fast-tracked drugs, and oncology treatments now account for much of pharma’s development pipeline, so it is important that CDMOs provide specialized capabilities, technology, expertise, and experience relevant to these types of programs. For expedited pathways, it is important, too, that development partners understand the interwoven and related steps essential to progressing a program efficiently and quickly. To that end companies have invested in technology and capabilities such as hot melt extrusion, spray-dry dispersions, and lipid formulation to provide options for small-molecule development, often to address the all-too-common hurdle of poor solubility and bioavailability.
How to Work with Contract Service Providers
Getting a CDMO engaged in the development process as early as possible avoids spending time exploring the wrong solutions and coming up with suboptimal formulations that need to be corrected before manufacturing. By bringing a CDMO in earlier in the process, they can more accurately assess which technologies and approaches can work on a project.
As drug products become more complex, there is increasing customer demand for relationships with CDMOs that have core competencies in highly specialized formulation and process technology areas.
One of these specialty areas is complex molecules. Biotech companies developing novel biologics are increasing in the market, thus there is an increase in outsourcing development services to BioCDMOs. To serve the needs of this market, companies are expanding their bio capabilities to offer advanced manufacturing technologies.
Another area of expertise where pharma is relying on CDMOs is in cell and gene therapy. Industry insiders expect gene therapy manufacturing market to boom and grow at rates ranging from 15 to 20%. Benefits of partnering with a cell or gene therapy CDMO include scalability, speed to market, access to technical expertise without overhead costs, and cost efficiencies. Demand for specialized manufacturing and clinical trial support for cell and gene therapies has resulted in more than 40 companies offering these services.