CDMO/CMO Mid-Year Review: Tracking the Key Moves Thus Far in 2023
Posted: 8 June 2023The Drug, Chemical and Associated Technologies (DCAT) is an association dedicated to educating and networking contract suppliers with the market from small molecule through to advanced therapies. DCAT has long been publishing the free to access DCAT Value Chain Insights newsletter and platform to support these efforts. As they overviewed the landscape of CGT suppliers in the middle of 2023, we were honored to be mentioned.
Activity in the biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing space was notable in the first half of 2023, with significant investment in capacity expansions. Samsung Biologics, WuXi Biologics, and Lonza announced new or ongoing investments in additional conventional biologics drug substance/drug product production facilities. Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies is expanding its existing facilities and constructing a new large-scale cell-culture biomanufacturing plant. New CDMO, Lotte Biologics, which launched in early 2023, announced plans to build three plants for antibody drug production in Korea by 2030.
In the peptide/oligonucleotide space, Bachem is investing over $1 billion to increase manufacturing capacity with two new facilities and expansion of existing sites. WuXi STA added two large-scale peptide production lines, while CordenPharma expanded into oligonucleotide manufacturing.
The biggest deal as of June 8, 2023, was the announced sale of Baxter BioPharma Solutions to two private equity firms for $.4.25 billion. New special purpose acquisition company eureKING acquired live biotherapeutics company Skyepharma. Waves were also made by newly launched CDMOs in the cell and gene therapy space focused on adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector manufacturing. NewBiologix is partly funded by small-molecule CDMO Recipharm and leverages a DNA-based platform for development of more productive cell-lines for AAV manufacturing. Newcomer, Ascend has a platform technology research site in California and highly specialized process and analytical development capabilities in Germany.