supply these complex molecules at tonne-scale.
“ We can be very proud of our success in scaling up to batch sizes of a couple of hundred kilos – that’ s absolutely unique,” Ayoub said. CordenPharma has also developed the complex downstream processing skills to handle these volumes.
The company has invested heavily in large-scale peptides in recent years, and not just GLP-1s. It has built its site at Frankfurt specifically for early-stage clinical development to assure customers it can handle small, and indeed very small, volumes as well as the mid-scale and very large scale assets it has elsewhere.
The world’ s largest peptides producer, Bachem, announced before the show that it still expects to produce the first GMP batches from the new Building K at its Bubendorf site in 2025. This followed a successful regulatory inspection. Commercial production will be ramped up in 2026 and the site will ultimately make several tonnes / year of peptides.
In the US, the company has also acquired a property adjacent to its Vista, California, facility to add additional upstream and downstream capacity in the future. It will invest about $ 250 million from 2026 to 2030 to expand capacity at Vista and to modernise the Torrance facility.
Multiple modalities
In the week before CPHI, Koreanbased SK Pharmteco announced a $ 6.1 million investment on a new lab and cGMP kilo-scale facility for solidphase peptide synthesis( SPPS) and purification at its Rancho Cordova facility in California. They will come onstream in January 2026 and 2H 2026 respectively. GLP-1s are the key short-term driver, but there are many others in customer pipelines.
“ We built this development facility because we want to get engaged with clients as early as possible,” said CEO Joerg Ahlgrimm. As volumes grow, the company may also invest in mid- and large-scale capacity in
Corden Pharma carries out early-stage peptide development at its Frankfurt facility
the US. This will complement the ongoing $ 260 million investment in a large-scale( 24,000 L) facility in Korea, plus € 60 million on a largescale small molecule facility and about $ 12 million on ADC payloads at Swords, Ireland.
The CDMO market in general, Ahlgrimm added, is varying a lot by modality. Small molecules are growing modestly, biologics more strongly, though the funding appears to be going into fewer bigger projects. The growing demand for US manufacturing is both an opportunity and a challenge. More clarity is needed on tariffs and Most Favoured Nation status before the impact on global manufacturing is clear.
“ As the only small molecule CDMO with substantial capacity in Asia outside India and China, as well as the US and Europe, we believe that we are very well equipped to manage whatever the outcome of the situation is,” he said.
Another Asian-based firm investing in similar fields is India’ s Syngene International. Shortly before CPHI it announced two expansions at its Bengaluru site: a dedicated peptide laboratory, then a GMP, OEB-5 rated bioconjugation suite for ADCs at its commercial biologics facility.
The former is designed to produce linear peptides, cyclic peptides and peptide-drug conjugates, and supports synthesis scale-up to 800 mmol. Among the features are six automated peptide synthesisers operating in parallel and equipped with robotic arms, that can help reduces project timelines by months. This investment gives Syngene tides capacity beyond small scale, though not yet commercial scale.
Meanwhile, the latter facility will integrate mAb production, payload and linker synthesis and GMP bioconjugation, making Syngene one of the few CDMOs with fullservice ADC capabilities at a single location. It will have capacity of 40 kg / year in batches of up to 1 kg when it comes onstream at the end of the year.
This, said SVP Alex Del Priore, was the outcome of an internal study about 18 months ago that concluded that ADC producers were struggling to find ones who could do everything. Syngene already had all the relevant capabilities at small scale, but lacked pilot-scale bioconjugation.
“ The next weight loss drug is not our core focus but when money starts to chase an area, there is a lot of innovation at the periphery and that’ s where we’ re going to play in both peptides and ADCs – at those fringes where science meets opportunity,” he said.
16 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981