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?

Read the insightful answers of the experts here.

Gavin Murdoch
VP Commercial Strategy, Abzena

Tom Sellig
CEO, Adare Pharma Solutions

Neil Jones
Chief Commercial Officer, Aenova

Ashu Tandon
Chief Commercial Officer, Aragen

Akhil Ravi
CEO, Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services

Martin Meeson
CEO, Axplora

Torsten Wöhr
CCO, Bachem

Frank Ferrante
Chief Strategy Officer, Cambrex

David McErlane
Group President of Biologics, Catalent; and
Aris Gennadios
Group President, Pharma and Consumer Health, Catalent

Russel Miller
Vice President Global Sales & Marketing, Enzene

Frank Wegener
CEO, ESIM Chemicals

Ludwig de Mot
CEO, EuroAPI

Kenneth N. Drew
Vice President, Flamma USA, Flamma

Victor Swint
CEO, Formulated Solutions

Christoph Schaffrath
Head of Marketing & Sales, Lanxess

Prasad Raje
CEO, LGM Pharma

Gordon Bates
President, Small Molecules Division, Lonza

Jordi Robinson
Chief Commercial Officer, Navin Molecular

Davuluri Saharsh Rao
Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Neuland Labs

Tom Wilson
Pfizer CentreOne Global Head of Business Development, Pfizer

Greg Behar
CEO, Recipharm

Federico Pollano
Senior Vice President Business Development & Client Program Management, Rentschler

Chad Telgenhof
Chief Commercial Officer, Sterling Pharma Solutions

Alex Del Priore
Senior Vice President, Manufacturing Services, Syngene

Rohtash Kumar
Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, Veranova

Thomas Otto and Peter Soelkner
Managing Directors, Vetter

Yu Lu
Senior Vice President, Head of WuXi TIDES and Head of Business Operations, WuXi STA