DCAT Week is a major forum for CDMOs and others to share their latest news. Andrew Warmington reports
Bioconjugate facilities at Lonza’ s Visp site
New modalities drive CDMO growth
DCAT Week is a major forum for CDMOs and others to share their latest news. Andrew Warmington reports
DCAT Week has become a key venue for set-piece announcements by member companies, which are vetted for genuinely new content. Those made at the latest iteration in New York in March, whether they were part of the member company announcements or not, were dominated by peptides, antibodydrug conjugates( ADCs) and other new modalities.
This trend reflects the importance of glucagon-like peptide( GLP)- 1s as the single biggest driver of growth. This market is forecast to be worth $ 130 billion / year by 2030. If oral solid dose( OSD) delivery forms can be developed – some envisage therapies that start with injectables and continue with OSDs – the potential may be even greater. Several CDMOs told SCM they are working on such forms.
Big Pharma companies are fighting to get in to GLP-1s while they still can. In the week before DCAT Week, for instance, Roche signed a deal with Zealand Pharma to co-develop and co-commercialise petrelintide, an amylin agonist for the treatment of obesity. This, combined with its acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics in 2023, cost a cool $ 8 billion.
For all this, as many observed, small molecules remain the majority of the API market and are expected to remain so for at least the next five years, even if biologics are growing faster. Indeed, some pipeline GLP- 1s are small molecules, while ADCs combine chemical and biological technologies. Many biotechs also have small molecules in their pipelines and are driven more by target therapies than technology.
Another key long-term trend putting wind in the CDMOs’ sails is the return to manufacturing in Europe and even more so in North America. Some Big Pharma companies have announced investments north of $ 50 billion. Even so, most of the work will probably be outsourced. The great imponderable at the time, needless to add, was the looming tariff wars.
View from the top
Lonza is often seen as the bellwether of the pharmaceutical CDMO business and is very busy, with 22 expansion projects in nine different modalities at present. Addressing attendees during the member company announcement forum on 15 March, Stegan Egli, head of the mammalian business unit, noted that demand is outpacing supply in this field.
He picked out three major challenges for the coming years. Molecules are becoming complex and more potent; they already account
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