Contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) have been on the rise in the last decade. Historically, CDMOs operated on a business model which predominantly focused on serving as external service providers for manufacturing pharmaceuticals. This model included the addition of capacity by the acquisition of manufacturing facilities from (bio)pharma companies or own capital investments. However, CDMOs have increasingly become innovation leaders and cover more areas of the pharma business, not just manufacturing, opening up additional revenue streams.

This change of focus has been accompanied by a change in the M&A landscape in the market. Some CDMOs are expanding their services and swapping their “contracts” for “partnerships”, evolving the term “CDMO” into “PDMO.” By getting closer to their partners, CDMOs can move past some of the pressure and offer consultative support or innovation to develop products in new ways.
The evolution of the CDMO sector is propelled by rising manufacturing standards, the advent of groundbreaking therapies, and a shift towards personalized medicine.

CHEManager asked executives and industry experts from a broad range of CDMOs to share their views on how their companies are dealing with this changing economic environment and the resulting opportunities and challenges. We proposed to discuss the following aspects:

• (How) have the rules of the CDMO market changed since the pandemic of 2020/21?
• What do you consider the most important growth drivers for CDMOs?
• What is your company’s strategy to grow the market share in the CDMO industry?

India’s CDMO Market Is Growing Significantly

Alex Del Priore: The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped the CDMO market, notably altering outsourcing trends and global supply chains. Geopolitical shifts have prompted pharmaceutical companies to diversify their supply chains, reducing reliance on single-country sourcing, particularly from China. This shift benefits CDMOs like Syngene, as companies seek high-quality research and manufacturing solutions that India offers that are also cost-effective. As the world’s second-largest holder of USFDA-approved facilities, India provides a skilled workforce and advanced technological capabilities. Today, the quality of science is perhaps the biggest differentiator for an outsourcing partner. In this respect, Syngene’s sharp focus on innovation as well as our ability to provide science and scientific teams at scale really sets us apart.

“Today, the quality of science is perhaps
the biggest differentiator for an outsourcing partner.”

The CDMO market in India is experiencing significant growth primarily driven by three factors: continued investment in biotechnology increasing the capacity, skills and experience available to outsourcers; the need to increase the resilience of supply chains through diversification; and geopolitical factors which are driving companies to seek new providers, particularly shifting away from China. As biotech funding rises, especially in the US, there is a surge in outsourcing activities, creating opportunities for CDMOs. Companies are looking beyond China for suppliers, opening growth avenues for CDMOs in regions like India. We are seeing companies setting up pilot projects across a broad range of services and often placing them with a select short list of suppliers. Their plan is to run these comparative pilots through the year and use this as a way of selecting future partners. Syngene’s ability to deliver end-to-end solutions, its investment in cutting-edge technologies and its strong track record in quality assurance has positioned us well to capture the opportunities that are currently emerging.

We have also invested in expanding our capacity and infrastructure. Syngene sees biologics as a key driver of its future growth and has all the building blocks in place to become a major player in the biologics space.