During the first half (H1) of 2024, the global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) landscape was driven by the escalating demand for complex drug development and manufacturing.With the industry grappling
with constantly evolving therapeutic modalities, CDMOs are racing to invest in
cutting-edge technologies and infrastructure to meet the growing needs of
pharmaceutical and biotech companies.Some of the key players in
the CDMO space are Catalent, EUROAPI, Lonza, Axplora, Thermo Fisher, SEQENS, Samsung Biologics, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, Quotient Sciences, Famar, LGM Pharma, Veranova, and Evonik.View CDMO Activity Tracker for H1 2024 (Free Excel Available) Novo’s parent buys Catalent for US$ 16.5 bn; Bora, Lonza, Siegfried expand US footprintDuring H1 2024, several
European and Asian drugmakers expanded their footprints in the US. In February,
Novo Nordisk’s parent company, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, announced the acquisition of Catalent through its
investment arm Novo Holdings for US$ 16.5 billion. Novo Holdings plans to sell three of Catalent’s “fill-finish” sites to Novo Nordisk for US$ 11 billion. The deal is expected to allow the Danish drugmaker “to serve significantly more people living with diabetes and obesity,” a company statement said.Taiwan-headquartered Bora Pharmaceuticals forged
ahead with its expansion plans in the US market by acquiring Minnesota-based generics
manufacturer Upsher-Smith Laboratories. Emergent BioSolutions said it is selling its Maryland facility to an affiliate of Bora. This site
in Camden is part of its
CDMO, Emergent Bioservices, and offers clinical and commercial non-viral
aseptic fill/finish services on four fill lines, including lyophilization,
formulation development, and support services.Swiss drugmaker Lonza has
agreed to acquire Genentech’s manufacturing facility in California, US, from Roche for US$ 1.2 billion in cash. The site,
located in the city of Vacaville, is one of the largest biologics manufacturing
facilities in the world by volume.Lonza also launched an artificial intelligence-driven route design technology for choosing the optimal synthetic pathway to manufacture novel APIs.Switzerland’s Siegfried is acquiring a Wisconsin (US)-based CDMO that specializes in early-phase development and
manufacturing services from Curia Global to strengthen its capabilities in
North America. Siegfried will further develop the site into its North American
Siegfried Acceleration Hub for early-phase CDMO services.View CDMO Activity Tracker for H1 2024 (Free Excel Available) Merck
Millipore, SK Bioscience lead CGT boom; Fujifilm,
Axplora, expand CDMO capabilitiesThe burgeoning field of cell
and gene therapies (CGTs) is driving significant investments in CDMOs. CGTs saw
considerable deal-making too. Merck KGaA agreed
to buy Wisconsin-based Mirus Bio for US$ 600 million. Mirus Bio is a specialist in the development and
commercialization of transfection reagents that are used to help introduce
genetic material into cells. These reagents play a key role in the production of viral vectors for CGTs.Similarly, South Korea’s SK
Bioscience acquired a 60
percent stake in IDT
Biologika GmbH for KRW 339
billion (US$ 244 million). IDT Biologika is a
104-year-old German company that ranks among the top 10 vaccine producers in
the world.CDMOs are also expanding their capabilities in order
to lead innovation for their pharmaceutical partners. Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies is
investing US$ 1.2
billion in its large-scale cell culture
CDMO business to further expand its end-to-end bio-manufacturing facility
in North Carolina, bringing the total investment in the facility to over US$
3.2 billion. Similarly, Merck
KGaA owned MilliporeSigma made its biggest investment in the Asia-Pacific
region in March when it invested € 300 million (US$ 327 million) in a new bioprocessing production center in Daejeon, South Korea.German CDMO giant Axplora is investing € 8 million (US$ 8.73 million) to expand
capacity for antibody drug conjugate (ADC) payload
manufacturing at its Le Mans site in France. Catalent completed
upgrades to its capsule filling capabilities of dry
powders for inhalation to handle potent drugs at its Boston facility. This now
positions Catalent as the CDMO with the largest GMP capacity for capsule
spray-dried and carrier-based inhaled powders.LGM
Pharma increased its Analytical Testing Services
(ATS) by 50 percent with a US$ 2
million investment and introduced new suppository
manufacturing capabilities to its CDMO portfolio. Minakem has invested
in a new production unit in Montreal, Canada, for steroid APIs.View CDMO Activity Tracker for H1 2024 (Free Excel Available) EUROAPI kicks off four-year sweeping plan; LegoChem
partners Samsung Biologics for ADC programSanofi’s spinoff EUROAPI marked 2024 as a “transition year”, setting in motion its Focus-27 plan for profitable growth in the
future. The sweeping four-year plan includes a streamlined value-added
portfolio focused on highly differentiated and profitable APIs, and a CDMO
focused on late-stage and high-value complex small molecules and tides supported
by unique technological platforms. The leading
French small molecules player signed a five-year
collaboration with Ireland’s Priothera wherein EUROAPI will develop and industrialize the manufacturing process of an innovative, complex molecule for blood cancers – mocravimod. The project will be carried out at EUROAPI’s site in Budapest, which is its center of excellence for complex chemistry.South Korea’s CDMO powerhouse Samsung
Biologics has partnered LegoChem
Biosciences and will
provide antibody development and drug substance manufacturing services as a part of LegoChem’s ADC program designed to treat solid tumors. LegoChem aims to submit an investigational new drug application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first half of 2025. Aurigene and Vipergen have joined
forces to offer DNA-encoded library (DEL) screening for drug discovery. By combining Aurigene’s drug discovery capabilities with Vipergen’s DEL screening technologies, they seek to create a powerful tool that can quickly test over a billion small-molecule compounds against different disease targets. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories’ company Aurigene also inaugurated its biologics facility spread across 70,000 square feet.Chinese biotech startup Pleryon is collaborating with France’s SEQENS, a leader in specialty ingredients, to develop and manufacture the former’s lead candidate, an innovative polymer to treat osteoarthritis. Famar is collaborating with Lavipharm and will serve as the contract manufacturer for the latter’s recently added analgesic pharmaceutical products — Lonarid N and Lonalgal.View CDMO Activity Tracker for H1 2024 (Free Excel Available) Our view Key
trends observed in H1 2024 include a surge in investments for fill-finish
facilities, a growing emphasis on cell and gene therapies, and advancements in
ADC manufacturing. With the proliferation of these new classes of drugs, the
CDMO space has been rapidly changing in recent years. In the future, the
integration of digital technologies, such as AI and automation, will be a key
differentiator for CDMOs looking to optimize their operations and accelerate
drug development timelines.
Impressions: 1850
Biologics, or complex drugs that are derived from living organisms, have revolutionized treatment of various conditions such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, and chronic illnesses. In 2023, eight out of 10 of the world’s top-selling drugs were biologics, including Merck’s Keytruda, AbbVie’s Humira, and Sanofi’s Dupixent.Due to their high costs, accessibility of biologics has been a challenge. That’s why biosimilars, or game-changing copycats of biologics that provide highly similar yet more affordable alternatives to established biologics, are becoming popular.The first biosimilar — Sandoz’ Zarxio — was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2015. Its reference biologic was Amgen’s Neupogen (filgrastim). Since then, the global market for biosimilars has been growing at an impressive pace — between 2015 and 2020, it grew at a whopping compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 78 percent, touching US$ 17.9 billion in size. It is expected to continue growing at a CAGR of 15 percent and reach a size of about US$ 75 billion by 2030.Major
biosimilar players include Amgen, Sandoz, Samsung Bioepis, Pfizer, Biocon Biologics, Celltrion, Stada Arzneimittel, Accord Healthcare, Fresenius Kabi, Coherus Biosciences, Apotex, and Sanofi. The increasing demand for
biosimilars has propelled growth in contract manufacturing. Some of the
leading contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and contract development
and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) that manufacture biosimilars are Polpharma Biologics, Catalent, Pfizer CentreOne, Lonza, Boehringer Ingelheim BioXcellence, Thermo Fisher Scientific, WuXi Biologics, and FUJIFILM Diosynth
Biotechnologies.Access the Interactive Dashboard for Biosimilar Developments (Free Excel)Amgen, Sandoz top list of ‘approved biosimilars’; FDA okays 8 copycats in H1 2024Over
the recent years, regulatory agencies like the FDA
and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have established rigorous approval pathways for biosimilars.Since 2015, FDA has
approved 53 biosimilars, while the EMA has approved 86 biosimilars. Among the US, European and
Canadian markets, Amgen and Sandoz are tied in the first place
with 13 approved biosimilars each. Samsung Biologics has nine approved
biosimilars, followed by Pfizer with eight and Biocon Biologics with seven. In the first half of this year, FDA set a record by approving eight biosimilars — the highest for H1 of any year. EMA has okayed six biosimilars so far in 2024.In 2023, five biosimilars were approved by the FDA with just one
being okayed in the first half. The year marked the end of exclusivity for Humira after 20 years, in which it
netted a total of US$ 200 billion in sales. AbbVie’s flagship autoimmune drug has a record 10 biosimilars.Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara also lost exclusivity in 2023 and as many as 11
drugmakers hope to bring its biosimilars to the market. Amgen’s Wezlana was the first biosimilar to
Stelara, and it was approved as interchangeable by FDA in October last year.Access the Interactive Dashboard for Biosimilar Developments (Free Excel) FDA approves first
interchangeable biosimilar for Eylea, cuts regulatory feeDeveloping a biosimilar costs both money and time. According to
Pfizer, developing a biosimilar can take five to nine years and cost over US$ 100 million, not including regulatory fees.In October 2023, FDA slashed its fees with the program fee at US$ 177,397, down from US$ 304,162. The application fees for products that require clinical data has been set at US$ 1,018,753, down from US$ 1,746,745. The application fee for products that don’t require clinical data has been set lower — at US$ 509,377 — down from US$ 873,373 set earlier. This reduction in application fee has propelled demand for contract manufacturing of biosimilars.There has also been a rise in approvals of interchangeable
biosimilars this year. Interchangeable biosimilars meet additional requirements
and may be substituted for its reference product by a pharmacist without
consulting the prescriber. This year saw FDA approve the first interchangeable biosimilars for bone cancer
drug denosumab (Prolia and Xgeva) in
Jubbonti and Wyost as well as for eculizumab (Soliris) in Bkemv.In May, FDA approved the first interchangeable biosimilars
for eye drug aflibercept (Eylea) in Opuviz and
Yesafili. Other biosimilars approved in 2024 include Simlandi for adalimumab (Humira), Tyenne for tocilizumab (Actemra), Selarsdi for ustekinumab (Stelara), and Hercessi for trastuzumab (Herceptin).Access the Interactive Dashboard for Biosimilar Developments (Free Excel) Merck’s Keytruda, BMS’ Opdivo, Novartis’ Cosentyx brace for biosimilar competitionHealthcare spending in the US is projected to rise from US$ 4.5
trillion in 2022 to US$ 6 trillion by 2027. While biologics involve just two
percent of prescriptions, they account for 46 percent of all pharmaceutical
spending. In 2022, US$ 252 billion was spent on biologics.Biosimilar-related savings in 2023 were estimated to be US$ 9.4
billion in the US and € 10 billion (US$ 10.68 billion) in Europe. With expensive and widely used drugs like AbbVie’s Humira, J&J’s Stelara, and Regeneron’s Eylea coming under competition, US
savings are projected to reach US$ 181 billion through 2027. Between 2026
and 2032, about 39 blockbusters are set to lose exclusivity in the US and Europe. Merck’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) was the world’s top-selling drug last year, generating US$ 25 billion in sales. Its patent is set to expire in 2028 with sales expected to drop
19 percent to US$ 27.4 billion in 2029 from US$ 33.7 billion the previous year. Samsung
Bioepis and Amgen initiated phase 3 trials of pembrolizumab in April
and May of this year, respectively.Opdivo (nivolumab), belonging to the same
class of drugs, competes with Keytruda and is also set to lose patent
protection in 2028. It hauled in US$ 10 billion in total global sales in 2023
for Bristol Myers Squibb. The key patents of Novartis’ Cosentyx (secukinumab) are set to expire between
2025 and 2026. Cosentyx saw sales of US$ 5 billion in 2023. Taizhou Mabtech Pharmaceutical and Bio-Thera Solutions are conducting phase 3 trials of secukinumab.Access the Interactive Dashboard for Biosimilar Developments (Free Excel) Our viewWith
over 2 billion people worldwide unable to access life-saving medicines,
biosimilars hold the key to healthcare accessibility. In 2023, a record 13 biosimilars were launched in the market — the highest for a single year. And this included nine much-anticipated biosimilars to AbbVie’s Humira. In April this year, FDA announced a Biosimilars Action Plan to streamline the development of biosimilars. With a sharp focus on biosimilars, we expect more records to be broken in the near term. New launches of biosimilars to drugs like J&J’s Stelara, Regeneron’s Eylea and Merck’s Keytruda will surely help in creating new records.
Impressions: 1831